00:00Zwitserland or Italy, who covers medical costs 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
00:23over who is responsible for the victim's hospital fees.
00:26On the 21st of April, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was shocked that
00:31victims' families had received medical bills from Swiss hospitals.
00:35Three Italian families did indeed receive notices,
00:38some of which outlined costs of up to €70,000 sparking outrage in Italy.
00:43But Swiss authorities told us that the fire's victims and their families
00:46are not expected to pay for treatment.
00:49They added that the documents they received were not itemized bills,
00:52but informational copies issued under Swiss law.
00:55But although the victims and their families do not have to pay,
00:58Italy's healthcare system might.
01:00The Swiss Federal Social Insurance Office says the case falls under long-standing
01:04European rules on cross-border healthcare.
01:07And this is true.
01:08Under these rules, EU insured patients treated in Swiss hospitals had their costs covered.
01:13These are then billed to the patient's home insurer.
01:16In this case, that would be Italy's public health system.
01:18But this sparked a fierce debate,
01:20with Meloni saying that Rome would reject any such request to reimburse Switzerland.
01:24Italy's ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told us that Rome expects Bern to waive
01:30all reimbursement claims.
01:32He added that Italy won't ask Switzerland to reimburse expenses for two Italian victims,
01:37who were treated in Milan for nearly two months.
01:39For the Italians, the Swiss canton of Valais and the owners of the Constellation Bar,
01:43where the fire broke out, bear a moral responsibility for the tragedy, unlike Italy itself.
01:48Either way, the reimbursement process has not been formally launched,
01:52and the total medical costs are still unknown.
