Appendicitis surgery in Belgium is for free!

In February this year, I suffered from stomach pain for 2 days before I went to the emergency center of Heilig Hart, a hospital in center Leuven. As I had a special condition of not being able to use a CT scan, it took a few hours before I was diagnosed with appendicitis by a radiologist.

After the diagnosis, it was already midnight, I was informed that I had to be immediately admitted to the surgery room for an operation. Before going in, the nurse asked me if I wanted a private resting room or a shared one, I chose a private one. I woke up after 1.5 hours on the operation table, I felt quite energetic, with no complications.

Then I was moved to the gynecologist department for aftercare. The hospital resting room looked like a hotel, with a bed, desk, and bathroom. I stayed there for 3 nights, and enjoyed a great Belgian medical service:

• The meal was delivered 3 times a day (but not for the visitors)
• The nurses did the formal temperature and blood pressure check on me every morning
• Cleaning service once per day, or any other time on demand
• Nurses came multiple times to change the intravenous medicine, give me painkillers, and antibiotics, or simply ask how I was doing
• The doctors also came to check on me from time to time
• Any time of the day (24 hours), when I needed anything, the nurses were just one button click away

On top of the above services, whenever I interacted with any of the medical staff, they were super nice and empathetic.

I have to say, before going to the hospital, I had no idea how it worked, and how much would it cost. After 1 month and a half, finally came the bill.

Before we get into the detailed bills, let’s talk about insurance in Belgium.

Mutuality
If you are a resident of Belgium, you will mandatorily subscribe to state health insurance for around 150 euros per year, called mutuality (this is the basics to enjoy medical reimbursement or other benefits). Check this post: Health insurance in Belgium – Are you using it to its full potential?

Hospitalisation insurance
This is usually only in use when you get hospitalized, it is not mandatory, but nice to have. Most employers cover hospitalization insurance for their employees. If you are not covered by your employer, you can also subscribe yourself, most insurance providers sell it. Depending on your situation, it costs a few to 20 euros per month, it gets more expensive if you get older.

My hospitalization insurance is from DKV, it was very convenient, I just needed to give my DKV number to the hospital, and then they took care of the rest. In the end, the hospital sent me a bill after all the reimbursement from mutuality and hospitalization insurance.

The bill can be split into 4 categories:

1. Cost of stay – 1995,93 euro

Basic hospitalized stay: 595,31 euro/night of which the mutuality covers 550,8 euro
Extra cost for single room: 70 euros/night

So the total cost of stay: 1995,93 euro

2. Cost of medical checks – 335,5 euro

The medical cost of all kinds of checks before I was diagnosed, such as blood tests, consultations, radiologists, etc. In total, it cost 335.5 euros, of which the mutuality covered 303.6 euros.

3. The medicines – 445,01 euro

During the hospital stay, I was given a few hours of antibiotics, painkillers, and intravenous drips, in total it cost 445,01 euros, of which the mutuality covered 229,98 euros.

4. The operation – 1841,86 euro

Although it was a small operation, there were a few medical staff involved (on short notice), a surgeon, a nurse, and an anesthetist. The cost of all the medical staff and the cost of the anesthesia totaled 1841,86 euros, of which the mutuality covered 836,41 euros.

The above was how much each item during the hospitalization cost, in summary:

The total cost of my 3 days of hospitalization was: 4618,3 euros, in total, the mutuality covered 3076,93 euros. I was surprised to see on the bill that I did not need to pay anything, as my hospitalization insurance covered the rest – 1541,37 euros.

If I don’t have hospitalization insurance, I would need to pay 1541,37 euros in total, if I don’t even have the mutuality insurance (Such as being a tourist), then my total cost would be 4618,3 euros.

What was the cost to me?

As the 2 insurances covered all the costs for me, so no cost for the hospitalization, I did need to pay 21,81 euros for emergency consultation fees. Furthermore, my insurance provider DKV requires me to pay one time 125 euros per year if I use a private hospital room. So 146,81 euros was the total cost to me.

I hope this article gave you some insights into how much it costs to be hospitalized in Belgium, I hope you don’t need it but it is good to know!

Price info for hospitalization insurance from:

Ethias.be
www.helan.be
Photo by RODNAE Productions