My husband is an American student - and we are on US health insurance without maternity coverage (or rather, it has a 12 month waiting period). His contract is through mid-August and I am due mid-July.

I would like to deliver with a midwife near Geneva or in the Pays de Gex area.
Are there any midwives in that area? Do I just set up a payment plan with them? Any advice? I am feeling a bit panic-y.

Thank you.

Just a thought..can't you sign up for a swiss insurance? I am sure they cannot reject you being pregnant and paying the insurance premiums could be cheaper than a payment plan for a midwife.

father of 2 here - my wife just gave birth in Zürich to our daughter 2 months ago.

Are you resident in Switzerland (your location says Kansas)? You could sign up with a Swiss health insurance, they cannot refuse you for basic coverage (which covers birth), unless you are a diplomat or work for an international organisation, in which case they should be the ones who pay.

As for payment plans, my experience (from taking foreign visitors with travel insurance to the A&E) is that the hospital required a CHF 1'000 deposit upfront (by credit card) for a suspected broken finger. Final bill was CHF 230, but we didn't find that out until I went back three months later to investigate. Turns out that the bill had been sitting with them for 8 weeks, but since it was showing a CHF 770 credit, they "didn't know what to do". I asked what had happened to the photocopy of the credit card they had taken "to facilitate reimbursement". It was sitting in the file right behind the (unsent) bill, waiting for the claim for reimbursement to become time-barred. So you can guess what you would have to stump up to cover birth and post-natal care.

Your husband can sign up for swisscare. It`s a relative inexpensive health insurance that many foreign students and researchers use. Maternity (birth, postnatal etc) is covered.

http://www.swisscare-intl.com/swissc...itzerland.html

Her husband can, but the rules have changed a while ago and it is not possible anymore for spouses of students & researchers to be insured through swissacare. They are referred to Sanitas from swisscare's website.

We live in France and he works in Switzerland at CERN. We had the option for Uniqua (sp?) - however, I am not sure if we can opt to enroll in January or if we have to wait until next July. The premiums were outrageous (as in almost 65% of his salary), which is why we opted to keep BlueCross. If we can enroll in Uniqua we will probably do that. Just not sure what the back up plan would be.

That`s good to know!

Here`s some info about cross border commuters:
http://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen/...nzgaenger.aspx

You may be better off in the French system (although that obviously will only cover you in France). There is a special system in place for family members of frontaliers (which is what your husband effectively is).

can't you just get a normal French private insurance? Mine costs 100 eur per month and everything is covered.

If it's a mutuelle, that is an add-on to the public system. You need to be in that first.

No it's not mutuelle, it's private health insurance for frontaliers. I don't know if the OP would qualify as not working though, but should check it.

In order to get onto the French public health system, you must be working in France. I'm pregnant too and just moved to France a few months ago. Although my husband is French, I'm not eligible for the public system since I'm not working here - just finishing up contract work in Germany. He's also working in Switzerland and was able to take out French private insurance. He could have opted for the public system but once you get on the public system in France, you can never go back to private.

We got insured with Credit Mutuel. There were some problems at first accepting my pregnancy (partly because I was 7 months) but we put pressure on them and they caved. My insurance costs about 200 euros a month and covers everything. Plus, being privately insured means I can see private doctors - was able to get all my ultrasounds after 6pm so my hubby could be with me. Private ultrasounds cost 200 euros and all were paid for no question. Mid-wife classes and private consultations also all paid for as well as postpartum pelvic re-education classes and treatments.

So I recommend checking in with Credit Mutuel - especially since you're still early in the pregnancy. They also have a special frontalier plan where you can divide a Swiss salary into a francs account and a euros account and also freeze the current Swiss currency rate for 6 months to a year. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more help!