Hi, all!

Me and my wife are moving to Switzerland in October. And I was looking for our options of health insurance. My wife is pregnant with twins in October she will be on her 6th month. As far as probabilities go the chances of complications with twin pregnancies are higher than regular one-kid pregnancies. In particular, the possibility of c-section is high. I really hope everything works out smoothly but to be prepared I was researching my options for the health insurance that will provide the most coverage for this scenario.

I was reading about coverage for complications (c-section being one of them) on comparis.ch and it appears that those are not well covered.

I was wondering if anyone could explain how this works? How would I find out exactly what is covered and what is not? Anyone had good/bad experience with a particular insurance company in this regard? Would supplemental insurance be an option for us - does anyone know of insurance that actually offers that with the pregnancy developed this far?

Basically any discussion on the topic would definitely help :-)

Thanks.

Hi Simon,
I am sure someone can supplement the information I'm providing in case it's wanting but anyway, my insurance company had strongly advised, in case of a pregnancy, to buy something called prenatal (I think) insurance.

It's an insurance that kicks in as soon as the baby (ies) are born and thus would cover their medical needs in case of birth complications or premature birth. As it stands, they would only be covered under their mother's insurance during their stay in the hospital, during and post delivery, if they are healthy. My company recommended another company called Avenex but I have had no experience with them.

Otherwise I am nearly certain that a c-section would be covered by any kind of insurance you get here.

Good luck and congratulations! Twins are awesome. (Am a sister to one. pair)

Don't be worried about the complications but do choose a hospital with excellent neonatal facilities. These are usually university hospitals or canton hospitals. You must ensure that your children are covered before they are born as the risks are indeed higher that one or both of them will be born with some complications although by far the majority are born perfectly healthy albeit often a tad small.

We were insured with Wintherthur when ours were born and we went to Basel Unispital for the birth. Note you will not be able to get anything other than standard cover for your wife at the moment - you might be able to get some supplements but private cover is out of the question.
Everything related to the birth is covered under the basic insurance policy.

I was advised by a gynecologist from University Hospital Zurich, that basic health insurance is enough for pregnancy. If you have private or semi-private it only gives you a one/two bed room and the head of the department would attend the birth, what he pointed out to be not really necessary. With basic insurance you will get all necessary and the best care available, so there is no need to worry

Can recommend basic insurance with the lowest annual franchise amount with Intras. Maybe not the cheapest, but certainly hassle-free. We've never waited more than 10 days for refunds of doctor's bills and have never had to argue about any kind of treatment.

If people are searching for extra cover, should you want it (zusatzversicherung in this case), do not take Visana, as they exclude the coverage for pregnancy if the mother was not insured during 365 days before the birth.

Ok, I found one more, for KPT it is 270 days. So in summary so far

Visana: 365
KPT: 270
Innova: 365

Sana 24, which is more or less the same Visana has this period of standard 270 days

Does it mean insured with any company or with Visana in this case?


I have heard from one young mom, that she had lost her first child just because she had basic insurance. After that she got either semi-private or private coverage. And so with her second pregnancy she was able to spend all her term (6 months) in a hospital and so to make it possible to give a birth to a healthy child. According to her, the choice of methods in her situation was different with the same doctor, just because insurance was different that allowed the doctor to advise some more advanced hospital care. After that it does not look to me, that extra money are paid only for comfy room.
Of course, I know this situation only from the words of one person. Would be interesting to know if it might be true.

Re: Twin pregnancy & health insurance dillema.
I mean that you need to check the conditions of your company, as they will mention how long you need to be insured in advance in order to be fully covered for pregnancy.

Suggest that you contact Jenny for advice.

I surely will. Thanks.