00:00Switzerland or Italy, who covers Medigall Coast after the Cranmontana fire?
00:09You may remember the deadly New Year's Eve fire in the Swiss resort of Cranmontana,
00:13which killed 41 mostly young people in one of Switzerland's worst fire tragedies on record.
00:19Months later, the tragedy has taken a political turn after a spat broke out over who is responsible for the
00:25victims' hospital fees.
00:26On the 21st of April, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was shocked that victims' families had received medical
00:33bills from Swiss hospitals.
00:35Three Italian families did indeed receive notices, some of which outlined costs of up to 70,000 euros, sparking outrage
00:42in Italy.
00:43But Swiss authorities told us that the fire's victims and their families are not expected to pay for treatment.
00:49They added that the documents they received were not itemized bills, but informational copies issued under Swiss law.
00:55But although the victims and their families do not have to pay, Italy's healthcare system might.
01:00The Swiss Federal Social Insurance Office says the case falls under long-standing European rules on cross-border healthcare.
01:07And this is true. Under these rules, EU insured patients treated in Swiss hospitals had their costs covered.
01:13These are then billed to the patient's home insurer. In this case, that would be Italy's public health system.
01:18But this has sparked a fierce debate, with Meloni saying that Rome would reject any such request to reimburse Switzerland.
01:25Italy's ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told us that Rome expects Bern to waive all reimbursement claims.
01:32He added that Italy won't ask Switzerland to reimburse expenses for two Italian victims, who were treated in Milan for
01:38nearly two months.
01:39For the Italians, the Swiss canton of Vallée and the owners of Le Constellation Bar, where the fire broke out,
01:45bear a moral responsibility for the tragedy, unlike Italy itself.
01:48Either way, the reimbursement process has not been formally launched, and the total medical costs are still unknown.
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