Insurance coverage for psychotherapy

Hi TTers,

I am planning to undertake psychotherapy. I am at the moment with private insurance, which does not cover this. I was told by the TK that my situation (doctoral student with stipend, registered at the University) does not allow me to switch to public insurance.

Therefore I am looking for advice on changing my insurance. Anyone knows if there is a good private insurance that covers this, or perhaps a possibility to change into public insurance afterall?

Many thanks

JR

It pretty much depends on how much you want to pay per month.

Also, if you are already planning to get extensive treatment or have an existing ailment, you have to disclose it when you apply for coverage.

I can't afford too much.

I don't think the treatment is gonna be that extensive anyway. I've been to other therapists, they told me that I was not sick, but I do need good advice from time to time. Do I always have to provide a diagnosis?

Instead of changing your insurance coverage, you may want to consider paying for the treatment yourself.

Have you checked with your university? Many German universities or their affiliated Studentenwerke have "Pysychologische Beratung" or other counseling services available for registered students.

It would be mad to change insurance.

if you plan to get treatment, their must be an existing ailment right now, correct? Maybe even a recommendation from a doctor? In this case NO other insurance will cover this pre-existing condition, at least not without a serious additional risk premium which would probably make it more interesting for you on the long term to stay with your current insurance and pay the treatment yourself. while I can understand your wish to have this covered, this is not how insurance works. You can not expect an insurance to pay for a risk that is sure to happen, that would be like insuring a house against fire when the roof is already red in flames...
In any private insurance application I know there are health questions you have to answer completely and truthfully, otherwise you might loose all coverage from this insurance because of fraudulent behaviour. One of the typical questions is like this: "Are there any ailments, illnesses or health conditions that have lately not been treated or where a treatment is planned?"
In your case you would have to answer with YES and than explain what ailment/treatment there is and it would lead either (best case scenario) to an exclusion of just this treatment or additional risk premium on top of the normal premium or (worst case scenario but extremely likely with psychotherapie) denial of your application...

There is one other good reason not to get psychotherapie covered through you insurance: the paper trail. If you get psychotherapie paid through an insurance, it will be recorded there. If at a later point of time (up to 10 years from now at least) you want to apply for a life insurance, an occpuational disability insurance or anything like that, you'll have again to report this in your application and again this will lead to either monstrously higher premiums or in most cases to a denial of your insurance application. I am sorry to say that, but German insurances are paranoid when it comes to pyschological problems... only thing worse as a condition is high blood pressure.

Should you still want to take another insurance while contemplating to be not fully open about your planned treratment - which I would strongly advice you not do - please make sure that you have the confirmation of accpetance from your new insurance in your hand before you cancel your old one. Otherwise you might end with a cancelled insurance in one hand and a denied application in the other and thus with no insurance coverage at all. Please bear also in mind that if - as mentioned below - you do not disclose any existing problems or condition, you might loose the coverage even if you encounter a totally unrelated health problem in case the insurance finds out. If you find you have cancer and need treatment and the insurance finds out you did not disclose the planned psychotherapie, the insurance can cancel the policy back to the day it was issued and you would loose all coverage even for the cancer, just to give you an example

sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Cheerio

Seems that it is getting complicated. Thanks for the advice!

I will definitely check out the one in Studentenwerk. Was told that they are rather competent.