Hi,

We are about to have our first baby here in Switzerland. My question is do you have to insure the baby before it is born and/or is it recommendable? I am looking for the best cover and trying to avoid surprises.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Pekka

Hi Pekka,

First of all have you told your insurance company you are pregnant? You need to officially inform them, just sending bills related to pregnancy is not enough, or they may not cover the cost of the birth. To begin with the baby is covered on your insurance, I'm not sure exactly how long this lasts but our baby ended up in the ICU of the kinderspittal and all bills were covered on my policy. Your local town hall will ask for proof the baby is insured as soon as they process the birth certificate so it is worth getting it sorted now. What we did was ask our insurers for quotes and what is covered in each level of policy, you can also use www.comparis.ch to compare what is available. You do not need to insure the baby with the same company you use.

All the best for the birth,

Lou

Hi, Pekka

One of the best health insurance is e.g. Sanitas. You can contact them and simply ask for. If you want someone to do it for you just write me a e-mail and I will do it for you.
Arek

I had 2 children while in CH. Last one was just in July 2006.

Both times, I informed the insurance, only after the arrival of the child.
They will charge the full month in which the child was born. The monthly cost is about 50chf, for full coverage with zero franchise (meaning you pay nothing for any claim).

If you are afraid, then inform the insurance office earlier than later.

Some people will recommend insuring the baby for life insurance and not medical insurance "BEFORE" the birth.

Some even insure the success of birth. ("sick" in my opinion)

Hope this helps.
Goto www.comparis.ch for an analysis.

HAT

Hi there,

You can do a "pre-natal" insurance which means at least it's all sorted out before the baby comes. It's free and there is no medical questionaire. You just pay from the month the baby comes.

If you don't sort one out beforehand, the baby will automatically be covered by your own insurance company (which may not be the best for him/her in terms of price and complementary insurance).

Sanitas is not too bad for kids. One of the least expensive.

When is the baby due?

Thank you all for the good advice!

Actually, I am not having the baby, we are having it together with my wife.

Our situation is that my wife is still working in Finland but moving here about 3 months before the birth in December. I have received the B-Permit for her. All medical inspections etc. have been done in Finland and we have the necessary documentation.

So actually we have to insure my wife first and then the baby. I have booked a time with my insurance company so I'll see what they come up with.

I will post more later this week when I hear what they recommend for the baby at this point. Interesting to see.

Pekka

When I was younger I used to think such statements were bullshit. I mean how can the man have the baby with his wife. Having been present at 2 births now I fully understand what you mean about having it together

Please do sort out your wife though as she will need to be covered before she steps into this country. There is always the risk that something will not run according to plan so being insured is peace of mind.

Furthermore and this has been covered elsewhere in another thread, you urgently need to think about where you will have the baby ie which hospital. You need to check this out with the insurance company as to what restrictions of choice your wife will have. Wincare for example provides the best choice here but it does depend on where you are living.

I know that you(she) cannot be privately insured anyway nor can you have the additional insurance options until after the birth but you can and should organise these for your baby - the options that is.

If you have any questions to the above - pose them now not later...

Hi,

Later this week ended up being some months...

Anyway here some experiences. Getting the insurance was not a big hassle after we received the B-permit also for my wife. We applied for the insurance before the arrival and got quoted etc. ok, but they required the official B-permit for the final approval. So I ended up doing the the excercise more or less twice.

Insuring the baby was very easy. The hospital sent all the required documents directly to the insurance company.

Some lessons learned:
- The HMO (Call the service center before going to the doctor) service did not work so well for us here in Zug, we ended up changing to normal insurance and paying a bit more. The service center did not have information about the local health services and we needed to find all things by ourselves anyway. This has to be dependand on the insurance company though. Ours is not very common in this area (but they had their webpages in english).
- Getting the birth certificate was a lot of trouble. Final solution, go to the register office and don't leave before you get it. It took 5 weeks.
- Start the passport application process ASAP, when you get the birth certificate. I got claustrophobic when I realised that we cannot leave the country without some sort of ID for the baby. The B-Permit is not good for that.

I think these things will be lot simpler with the second baby. The only problem is that we will propably be in another country by then and the same drill starts again...

Cheers,
Pekka

P.S. Mother and daughter are okay.

good feedback pekka.
I can't believe you spent 5 weeks in the registry office though - did they feed you??

Being the quiet scandinavian that I am, they thought that I was a plant and kept on watering me.