How do you get health insurance here?

I have been looking for health insurance since I decided to stay here, last May, having arrived from England last September. My research kept leading to dead ends or rows with officious insurance Beamtes...and I actually stopped looking in July. I got sick last week and got clobbered with hospital and Dr bills of 300 Euros...yes I know this could have been worse and yes I know...I should be able to claim some of this back in England, but I now want health insurance ASAP.

BUT: the private health schemes I have been offered are all too expensive ( over 250 Euros per month - or even 350 a month at Debeka) or, if they are even reasonable ( at 200 a month) they dont seem to cover much at all anyway and don`t seem with reputable firms - so far in my search.

In the public health system, e.g. AOK, its just been "NO"! They say, as Im a "Freiemitarbeiter" ( yes Im an English teacher) I can`t have a social system. I got so angry about this, especially when I found out that some of my colleauges, who once had a contract, can get it at A.O.K, but that they wont give it unless you can prove you once had a "Arbeitgeber" in Germany.

It seems unfair for foreigners here, unless you`re sitting on your arse unemployed or sitting in a plush job that noone can push you out of! People aways knock the NHS but Im starting to see the beauty of it!

But basically Im going to start panicking soon if I can`t get insurance.

Please help!

Richard

Look up expat health insurance with BUPA etc. There was a thread on here a acouple of weeks back discussing it. I pay £1300 annually for myself,my wife and daughter. I was paying €700 per month to a German Insurance company.

I'm interested to hear more about this Cammy.
I was told I cannot use AOK until I have been here for a year. I have company gold BUPA but was told this was not OK and that I had to have German health insurance beacause 'that is the law'.
I now pay €270 a month for myself my wife and my son (the company pays half) and still have a €300 per year excess.
I now have more insurance than a hollywood stunt man and the irony is that if any of us were seriously ill we would probably go back to UK because we would need help and don't know anyone here!
I have found on several occasions that certain people in the company here quote their opinion as law.

Well I did get insured as a freelancer with AOK with no previous employment in Germany. That was 8 years ago and they may now have new guidelines but basically I had to declare income over 12 months and pay according to the average. With no employers contribution I was paying 11.6% of average monthly earnings.

BUPA would have been cheaper. If you do go for BUPA check carefully what isn't included in the cover.

I agree. It's staggering the prices people pay here if you're on a middle income and have to work for it.
I got some reasonable quotes from Medibroker.
In the end I got away with having no insurance (apart from my UK scheme + travel insurance). I have no idea if I'm breaking some kind of law and frankly I don't care. Just don't tell anyone.

http://www.medibroker.com/quotes.html

Is BUPA only for Emergencies or can you go to the doctor with an ingrown toenail or sore throat on the BUPA international policy??

I pay about €800 a month (of which my firm pays about €225) for the whole family for private insurance. All inclusive - no excesses, private hospital rooms etc. With Bupa on their gold membership I'd be at about €530 so I'd be about €45 better off but there is a load of stuff their that Bupa wouldn't pay for. Like prescription medicines which we currently get 100% re-imbursed for. Or dental charges.

The way round this problem is to find some local businessman and get him to give you a job for a month, then quit. Actually I don't even think you need to make it that long, a week would probably be enough. Then either he has some work that you actually do for the money, or you agree to pay the money, including his other costs back and do nothing.

Obviously you need to know the person concerned fairly well so that a certain amount of mutual trust exists, but it does work. I have a friend who solved the problem this way. Also another friend who has a building business offered to do the same for me, but idiot that I am, I dithered too long and shortly after they changed the law so that if you're over 55 and haven't had at least 30 of the last 60 months in the "Gesetzliche" then there is no way back in, not even if you're on unemployment benefit! Not sure what happens if you're on Hartz IV.

Thank you all, for your help.

I will keep shopping around. I want a german insurance scheme, at the end of the day:
1) because then I get that little card to wave at over zealous bureaucrats at the hospital entrance. Also might come in handy next time I try (yet again) to get my temporary work permit made into a 5 year one ( yes I am British but my town`s Ordnance Amp havent hearf of the EU yet)
2) Bupa doesnt pay for dental work.
3) I want to be paying through the nose just like my German friends - anything to make them stop looking at me like a "scrounger". ( but I want to pay someone 10% of my income, honest!!!)

Just for the record, I think I could have got treated in hospital again last week, if Id fallen on the floor or something. But as it was ( I was in a lot of pain but was still walking) they sent me to the Chef Doctors administrator, who made me feel so ludicrously second class, without insurance, that I nearly did fall on the floor. They would not treat me until I had paid the first bill. Just a warning for those of you out there taking the risk, like I am. Righteous indignation doenst make the pain go away either! O.K Germans are fed up with so many scroungers...I see that point. Just a pity we Brits ( who`s cute little Auntie NHS would treat anyone for free as long as they arent in a hurry) have to take the punch for all immigrants.

Im ringing around, and if anyone wants to give me any more names, for good state insurance schemes for freelance English teachers, I d be over the moon.

Thanks again

Richard

Expat insurance I use is just the same as the Private one, I get the treatment and they send the bill to my home address. I send the bill to the insurance firm and they send me a cheque. I pay the bill. I don't get a chip card but the just take my name and address anyway. Its valid for all treatments except dental but my German insuranmce only covered 50% of dental anyway and one month at €700 is a good years dental bill. I believe the only drawback is that if you are employed by a firm they will only pay 6 weeks sick leave and then your health insurance pays(a reduced amount) after that. I know a few people with no insurance, I wouldn't do it, however the German scheme seems very pro insurance companies as its compulsary and they make it difficult to shop outside of the fixed German insurance market.

You should have just told them that you are privately insured. Many private insurers don't give you little plastic cards. I've never been asked for ID either. So in theory you could just show up at the doctors, tell them you are privately insured, give them a dodgy address, and get treated for free.

Richard

As an EU citizen you don't need the Aufenthaltserlaubnis anymore, even if your local Amt hasn't realised it yet. Despite this (and because it's Germany) you still get a free certificate to say you can live here - after you supply them with your passport details (number, valid from/til, issuing agency).

Oh, come on, be fair. It's only about ten years since they abandoned the necessity for an Aufenthaltserlaubnis. You surely can't expect all the Beamter to have woken up to that already!

actually only since about 7 months and 23 days

hmm...since I just came from reading a different thread about Aufenthaltsgenehmigung I am not sure about this anymore, what I said above. I only said it cuz somebody on the board said so months ago, and I was just happy about it without any prove.
But now the "german" inside me comes out again...
Adi or RMA, can you please post a link to the rule, that you definately need one anymore?

Europe decided about 10 years ago, it took until this year for Germany to catch up

maybe. but only moaning about this wont help much. And as you see in the other thread it still is not clear in Germany yet

Who's moaning? Not me I find it amusing, frustrating and sometimes ridiculous how beaurocratic and conservative this country is but I accept it for what it is, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed here so long.

There are signs however that the Germans are (very slowly mind) catching up with the rest.

isn't it weird that we just say the same about the Brits
Not in "Bürokratie" but in loads of other things

True you may say lots of things not necessarily true, but you may say them.

Of course Britain may be behind in some sectors, cant quite think of any at the moment in relation to Germany but I am sure there are some. What has this to do with the problems Germany has with beaurocracy and a much too large and cumbersome (and expensive) civil service?

That's one thing I have noticed since living here Germans take any critisism of their country whether constructive or not as a personal insult and try to diffuse this assault by responding to the effect "Well maybe x is wrong here but y and z are wrong in your country". I live here and have lived here for a long time now I feel perfectly qualified to be able to recognise the good and the bad in Germany and also to provide a comparison with the UK.

well I admit that I feel a bit offended of loads of your posts. If you want to be so correct then don't say the germans are slow (this includes me) but I am not the Bürokratie, I dont even work for one. And even I am pissed off by it mostly.
And if not even a helps, then we better just drop it

last thing: If somebody has problems here in Germany I think it is more helpful to give advices to deal with the problems than always just complain that they are shite

Well I'm sorry if you feel offended, offence wasn't my intention. I write German (note capital G to be correct ) for brevity I of course do not imply that every single German is slow in any way I apologise if that was not clear. German society as a whole however and in particular the German civil service is mind numbingly slow and conservative and before you ask I worked for 5 years within the civil service here so I speak from personel experience

cheers

Please point out where I have moaned?

And as far as advice is concerned I have offered you my advice concerning the now no longer valid EU Aufenthaltserlaubnis, if you choose not to heed that advice I cant do anything about it.

cheers cheers cheers I give up.
Let's stick to ONE thread at least

Back to health insurance, I've got a BUPA ex-pats insurance, pay €153 (including International evacuation) per month (compared to the 500+ that the TKK wanted) and have had no problems. As far as the dental work goes BUPA pays for emergencies and for the routine stuff I can recommend the occasional trip to Poland as a private patiant.

hi,

we use techniker krankenkasse, under which a) absolutely everyhting is covered and you pay as a percentage of your salary, which is, i think, the way that many of them operate here? i think ours is about 12.5 %.

they have SOME english speaking staff and we got a big fat brochure about what you are and aren't entitled to IN ENGLISH.

so far, because i'm pregnant and my husband needs about 5 years worth of dental work, we are really getting our money's worth.

can recommend them.

monkel xx

Techniker is OK for service, but tend to be expensive especially in my situation as self employed (see last post), before I became self employed I was also insured by them.

I pay 50 Euro a month with DKV. Had an OP a couple years ago and spent a week in the hospital. They paid everything. No complaints.

50€ seems suspiciously cheap how did you wangle that?

It does seem suspicious. which is why I noted that they paid all my hospital bills (as well as my eye glasses, dentist and other doctor visits). An Irish construction worker told me about it, and is apparently what all of them use. What I have is technically travel insurance (and is therefore only valid so long as I don't have permanent residency, meaning after 5 years I'll have to find something else). It seems too good to be true (didn't have to take a medical or anything, either), but it has worked brilliantly so far. I think that by only selling to foreigners, they figure that most will never take advantage of it, so they can afford to set really low rates.

Aha ok that clears it up

Well, I'll have a search, Hannah, but I can't promise anything. It's about ten years ago since I went to the Gemeinde to renew my Aufenthaltsgenehmigung, only to be told it was no longer necessary. Needless to say, I haven't concerned myself about it since.

My guess is that it might have something to do with Scheningen (or however you spell it!).

can't believe, that I typed this yesterday (Fuchs messed up my head I guess)


of course I meant that you definately DON't .. blah...

thanx anyway RMA, I guess it got sorted out in the other thread by now :$

oh yeah, great advice!!! hope you never turn up at my husband's office... doctors are people with staff to pay and families to support too.