[gutnor]

Does healthcare insurance pay for that in the US ? In the EU, this is considered a personal life-choice procedure and very rarely handled by insurances - like cosmetic surgery. (being the EU though, you can get it for free using public healthcare)

[maeln]

It's not the case in most EU country I visited. In France, giving birth is 100% free, even if you have to go to a private clinic/hospital.

[gutnor]

There may be a confusion here, I'm referring at Private Healthcare and not Public Healthcare run by a private company.

Spain sometimes subcontract public healthcare to private hospital. However from a patient point of view, you are still treated as a public healthcare patient (i.e. you pay through your tax and the government has a specific financial agreement with the company running the hospital).

Otherwise I'm confused by France model. What's the business model of a Private Hospital is they receive no money neither from the Government nor insurances nor their patient ?

[etiennemarcel]

The French system is hybrid. There's public and private health insurance, and public and private hospitals.

For everyday care the public health insurance reimburses 70% and the private health insurance the remainder.

For more serious procedures (such as a baby delivery) the public health insurance reimburses 100% of the fees. The prices are fixed by law, the practitioner can charge more (if it's a private hospital) but then the private health insurance will have to pay the difference.

The public health insurance is paid through taxes (I think something like 5 to 10% of the salary?) and the private health insurance is between 50 to 100e depending on your family and coverage (glasses, teeth, etc.)

[jstanley]

I'm only familiar with the UK, but the NHS absolutely deals with births for "free".

[stevekemp]

We paid €200-300 in Finland, to receive a private room for mother, father, and baby for a few days post-birth.

I think we'd have been given a shared room for free, but at the time it seemed like a good choice to make.

[dagw]

Sure, but if you for some reason don't want to give birth at an NHS hospital then your health insurance probably won't cover the costs of a private hospital.

[hef19898]

In which country? I don't know of any. Except for added services like a private room and stuff like that are more comfort oriented than medical.

[gutnor]

The UK and Spain have a private health sector with Clinics, GP, ... To access those you either need to pay cash or have a private health insurance.

Both the UK and Spain have also a public health sector, with Clinics, GP, ... that is accessible for free.

In the UK and Spain, very few private health insurances covers Birth or Emergency Care: for those you are supposed to go to the public service or pay cash in a private clinic.

Other countries like Belgium have health insurances that give you the kind of extra comfort you mention. But they cost something like 5 EUR a month vs the 100 EUR in Spain and the UK.