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It costs around the same in Europe if you don't have insurance. I'm pretty sure it's the same in the USA - this is the rate that would be charged to your insura
by TomMarius 8y ago
It costs around the same in Europe if you don't have insurance. I'm pretty sure it's the same in the USA - this is the rate that would be charged to your insurance company. Rates are way lower for uninsured people if you ask them and tell them that you're not insured (I got a bill lowered 10 times when I broke my hand); and of course most people have some kind of insurance.
To the people downvoting: please read properly. If you move your place of residence outside your country, you're no longer insured, and that's what I'm talking about - I specifically said "if you don't have insurance".
- ludoo 8y agoActually in Italy you don't pay a dime, unless you want to. The level of care you get varies by region, but is generally pretty good, especially for regular, mass events like birth.
- BeniBoy 8y agoSame in France. Standard care is free, extra can be taken care of by your private insurance.
- cronz 8y agoHaha, what? Childbirth costs 0 € in a public hospital
- TomMarius 8y agoIt doesn't. Not everywhere and every time. See my other reply.
- CaptainZapp 8y agoWell, yes. That's true for most European countries (unless you go private). https://www.babycenter.com/101_what-birth-costs-around-the-world_10386674.bc https://www.babycenter.com/101_what-birth-costs-around-the-w...
- dagw 8y agoTechnically in Sweden it costs ~10€ pr. night.
- sergiosgc 8y agoNo. Prenatal care, childbirth and postnatal care are entirely free in Portugal and in most European countries I know of. In Portugal it's both free and either best or second best in world ranking.
- bryanrasmussen 8y agoIn Denmark it costs 0, also since we're raising the next generation of payers into the tax system we get paid money quarterly (about $700 [guesstimate] for the first couple years decreasing over time, our 9 year old gets a governmental stipend of $200 per quarter [another guesstimate]) I guess what I'm trying to say as someone who lived a lot of years in the U.S - why the hell they gotta screw you so hard there? on edit: of course I should also specify that Denmark is pretty capitalistic, so you pay for your kindergarten once you enroll the kids in there and that will cost more per month then you are getting in stipend.
- falcolas 8y ago> why the hell they gotta screw you so hard there? The same reason most things happens: Lots of short term profit, no matter the long term cost.
- kasey_junk 8y agoYou (or one of your countrymen) pay for it with taxes, that isn't the same as it costing $0. Now, it likely a) does cost a lot less in Denmark than in the States in real terms and b) paying for it with taxes might absolutely make the most operational sense. But it isn't free.
- bryanrasmussen 8y agowooo, I hadn't realized we pay for it with taxes! Wow thanks for correcting me, this sure has been a week for me, why yesterday I just barely learned that water was wet - imagine that!?!
- kasey_junk 8y agoSo how much did it cost you to have a baby in Denmark, just so the conversation is clarified? Also as an aside there are lots of babies born in the US that are paid for via taxes and cost $0 out of pocket for the family. Medicaid, the VA, Tri-care etc. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I'd bet that there were more American babies that were tax paid for than Danish ones in a given year.
- gambiting 8y agoThat's absolutely not true. If it is, name an EU country where that is the case. If you are a citizen of an EU country, you are entitled to use the healthcare system in that country(and any other EU state), purely by virtue of being a citizen. The only case that would maybe trigger a payment would be if you were a visitor to EU and had a baby - but most likely no hospital would bill you as hospitals are just not equipped for billing, they don't have the staff or the equipment to do such weird things as issue bills for treatment to people. I know at least several non-EU people who had treatment in EU and no one ever asked them for any insurance info to bill them, unless it's something major and very very expensive there's just no point, it would most likely cost the hospital more to figure out how much and how to bill you in the first place.
- TomMarius 8y agoThat is absolutely not true. I am a citizen of the Czech Republic and if I stop being insured, e.g. because of changing my place of permanent residence, I'm not entitled to anything.
- gambiting 8y agoThen Czech Republic must be an exception in the EU - pretty much every other country that I lived in worked on the simple principle of "you are a citizen/resident = you are entitled to care". Even if you didn't make any payments ever(due to lack of a job, or being homeless or disabled for example) you would still be 100% covered.
- expertentipp 8y agoNot the case for Poland either. If one is not employed and not registered as unemployed (authorities are doing all they can to keep the official unemployment statistics low), one has to proactively subscribe to "voluntary health insurance". In case one doesn't - pronto! one has no healthcare insurance. Of course, the constitution guarantees the healthcare, free-universal-healthcare blah blah - good luck suing everyone or anyone while being in such life situation. Slightly different, but also extreme, case - Germany. There, one always is insured, only for the months one doesn't pay a debt is accumulating (you thought healthcare can incur debt only in US?). It's quite difficult to get out of German healthcare insurance actually, even while being EU citizen and moving out of Germany. In fact, for a EU citizen who takes advantage of free movement of workers and relocates often between EU countries, one can fall pretty badly on its face healthcare insurance-wise.
- 3D13158219 8y agoNo idea why you believe this. I've had babies in two European countries and didn't pay a thing for either of them.
- TomMarius 8y agoI believe it because the law and EU regulation explicitly states it.
- jvannistelrooy 8y agoDo you have a source? I did a quick google for the Netherlands, but couldn't find any information about the real costs (without insurance).
- TomMarius 8y agoI do, the Czech laws regarding health insurance - and pricing will be sent on request to the hospital.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nik736 8y agoCan you elaborate? In Germany at least this is not true at all.
- TomMarius 8y agoIn Europe there are countries where you can not be a part of the public system in some cases, such as changing your permanent residence outside the country.
- gambiting 8y agoWell, ok, I see what you're getting at - but unless you moved to outside of EU, you are still fully covered by the country where your new permanent residence is. If you moved out of Czech Republic to Spain for example, just get an EHIC card from Spain and you can get treatment wherever you go in EU, including Czech Republic.
- TomMarius 8y agoYes, but I was talking about the case when you're not insured. Btw the treatment you're entitled to in other EU countries (outside the issuer country of your insurance card) is limited (but of course childbirth is covered) and you need travel insurance (it's cheap in EU, around 2 euro per day), especially if you're doing sports as any injury done during sports is not covered at all outside your country.
- dirktheman 8y agoIt's free in The Netherlands. Well, not technically free but it's covered by the universal healthcare so it won't cost you a dime. (FYI the basic healthcare plans all cover the same regardless of insurance company. It covers nearly everything that you could go bankrupt on. There are extra packages that cover additional care like physical therapy or dentist costs. A basic plan is around EUR 90,- per month with a deductible of EUR 385,- per annum, but there's no deductible for MD visits and, yes, childbirth/neonatal care).
- NiekvdMaas 8y agoNote that medicines count towards your deductible, as well as any more serious investigation by the GP (x-rays, blood tests, etc).
- pjc50 8y agoI think it would have helped if you specified Czech rather than "Europe", because it's a big place and it looks like many of the smaller countries have this kind of non-public system. The rules appear to be complicated: https://www.kancelarzp.cz/en/links-info-en/health-insurance-system-in-cz https://www.kancelarzp.cz/en/links-info-en/health-insurance-... It sounds like there's a hole for people to fall in: if you're a Czech national, but not resident nor employed in Czech Republic, but in the country anyway, and you don't have private insurance, then you have a problem. (It looks like if you're a resident proper in another EU country with resident-based healthcare, such as the UK, then that would work for EHIC purposes if you visited Czech Republic.)
- TomMarius 8y agoThere are rules that are EU-wide - because they're set by an EU regulation. If you're a resident in any EU country, you get the blue card. That makes you entitled to whatever (this is depending on the country and not set by the regulation) in your country of residence and basic care of life threatening issues in the rest of EU, Czech Republic included; however if you injure yourself doing e.g. sports in other EU country, that's not covered! That's why travel insurance still exists, otherwise it'd be pointless. My comment was talking about uninsured people, so mostly non-EU residents and people that didn't pay and weren't entitled for coverage by their government - the way it works is that your governments pays the insurance for you if you can't, but will not if you can; there is an exception - Germany, where everyone is covered through taxes.
- hef19898 8y agoI'm no expert on the gritty details of the German system (who would have thought health care could be that complicated, right?) but as German resident I have some insights. Everybody who knows better, please correct me. In Germany everybody who is employed in way that pays social insurance is also health insured, you cannot opt out of it. In that system, in addition to taxes, social security and unemployment insurance, you pay a certain percentage of your gross salary to get health insurance. This percentage varies by your choosen provider. Your employer is paying the same amount (more or less, not sure if the employer amount is fixed). You can opt out of the public system above a certain salary and pick private insurance, prices vary greatly. Unemployed people are insured by the state, I guess using taxes or social security or unemployement budgets, I have no idea. You have to be registered as unemployed to be covered. If you do not register you have the choice of being insured with a family member (public health care) or voluntarily (private or via the public system). You are obliged to be insured oine way or the other. Exceptions are soldiers (some kind of in-service system with cost reimbursement, don't ask for the details), public servants (something similar in a lot of cases, again, please don't insist on details), certain professions (doctors, pharmacists, artists,lawyers) with their own insurance solutions. You are screwed as a afreelancer, your only solution is a private insurance that can get quite expensiver. TL/Dr: You are always insured one way or the other. It is not paid for by taxes.
- raarts 8y agoVirtually all of Europe has either publicly sponsored and regulated universal health care or publicly provided universal healthcare.[1] So if an EU citizen moves to another EU country, there's no problem. An average hospital in The Netherlands (#1 in quality in Europe [2], but #6 in costs) charges the insurance company between €607 (natural birth) and €4450 (c-section). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care#Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_univers... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Europe#European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Europe#European_...