Is a private room covered?

What basic insurance covers

Compulsory insurance covers a hospital stay in the general ward, in an establishment on your canton of residence’s hospital list. The medical care is the same: what changes with the ward is comfort and choice of doctor, not clinical quality.

Outside your canton, cover applies in only two cases: emergency, and medical necessity — when the treatment you need is not available where you live. A personal preference for a hospital in another canton is not enough, and the difference can be substantial.

What each ward changes

• ✓General ward: multi-bed room, doctor on duty, hospital in your canton.
• ✓Semi-private: two-bed room, wider choice of doctor, access to out-of-canton hospitals.
• ✓Private: single room, free choice of doctor, access across Switzerland and often to private clinics.

What to check before signing

Supplementary hospital cover is taken out with a health questionnaire, and the insurer may refuse or attach exclusions. That is the opposite of basic insurance, which must accept everyone unconditionally.

Three points repay reading before you sign: the list of establishments genuinely accessible, the amount of any cost-sharing, and how the premium rises with age. Supplementary hospital cover costs little at thirty and a great deal at sixty — and sixty is precisely when you can no longer switch.