Half (or more of) the battle in these public policy discussions is coming to an agreement on terms.
Thus, insurance actually acts like insurance, like car insurance or fire insurance, there to catch you in a bad situation, not to give you discounts on your day-to-day expenses.
In Switzerland there is a deductible for adults but everything connected to pregnancy and child-birth is deductible-free. Also, kids below 18 yrs old have mandatory insurance that is has no deductible, thus treatments for them are free.
That's an average. The problem is the huge variance. Also just because you have heath insurance doesn't necessarily mean your insurance will pick up the tab.
I’ve been charged out of network at an in-network hospital because the physician didn’t identify themselves or their network. If they’re not your primary doc it might be worth asking for someone who is covered to save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Do most people just decide to do it at home and take the risk?
Deductibles can vary wildly depending on someone's insurance plan. However, there are a myriad of financing options, charities, etc if for some reason you can't afford that.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-26/sky-high-...
I would estimate the vast majority of people in the US need to budget at least $5k for a baby, if everything goes right. It would be better to have $10k cash though depending on prenatal visits, c section possibility, and multitude of other costs that can arise.
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 ?
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.)
I think we'd have been given a shared room for free, but at the time it seemed like a good choice to make.
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.