Cancelling a private health insurance contract

I noticed there are only about 80 topics regarding health insurance so I thought it was about time someone added another one...

I want to stop my current private german health insurance so that I can switch to a much cheaper one like AXA PPP. I have recently changed from unemployed to freelancer status.

My insurance broker tells me that the earliest I can stop my private german insurance is December 2007 (and this is the same for all private german health insurance companies). And I can do this at any time up to September 2007. I can also stop it if I leave the country (not going to happen) or if they increase the premium...

I asked him what would happen if I just stopped paying the premium. He said they would either kick me out (which is what I want - great punishment, eh?) or set the lawyers on me.

Whats the reality? Are they likely to use the lawyers? BTW, I have made no health claims for this year...

Can you clarify why you are asking a bunch of schlubs the answer to a question that you already have an expert answer to?

But I'll throw my 2 cents in, what the heck. Yes, they will probably come after you with the lawyers if you don't pay them for your coverage.

Well, can I really trust my insurance broker to give me an unbiased opinion!?

I cant find the thread now but essentially a previous TTer found a "loophole". S/he went and deregistered, got the piece of paper sent it to the insurance company resulting in a cancelled policy and registered again. Dont know if it will work in your situation or not.

Thanks but I think as a freelancer there would be too many other things I would then have to deregister and then reregister...

why not asked another insurance broker to get a second opinion and then you can decide which one you are more likely to trust.

For posterity, here's the Quitting a private health insurance contract I mentioned. I knew I put it somewhere.

PS: Is the system that clever that you'd have to deregister everything? Doesnt matter, probably not recommended course of action anyway.

As you have already searched and found (something like 80) discussions on this topic, please read the information in them regarding the get-out clauses and conditions NOT covered by (UK) schemes like AXA-PPP, BUPA ... etc.

Yes, they are much cheaper, but should you be unlucky enough to suffer from or develop what they term as "Chronic" conditions, they will chuck you out or refuse to pay for these conditions after an initial treatment.
If you then try to re-enter a German Private scheme they will almost certainly exclude these conditions too. At least for a period of time which could be anything from 6 months to 2 years to ... forever.

I recently looked at alternatives to the German state scheme (one of the Kasse providors) and was very tempted by AXA-PPP & BUPA until I studied what they don't cover.

I (and others) then added lots of info on this to the relevant TT discussion(s).
MT

you may also like to bear in mind that any new private insurance company you register with will these days, as a matter of course, check with your previous insurance company about claims you have made recently - the do this to make sure you haven't lied about your recent history, as private insuarance companies won't cover you for existing complaints.

When they do this and find out that - legally - you are still insured by the former company as you didn't keep to the contract regulations, you just may find you can't get anyone else to insure you either.

Just for reference, I think Private health insurance company recommendations is a relevant link for what MT was talking about.

But, yes, being an exceptionally healthy person, I have decided to take the risk and go with AXA PPP!

@ruapehu - Thats a good point, is it normal for these companies to do such checking or only when you start presenting huge bills?

it depends on the new insurance company. But they are entitled to do it straight away; they ask on the form who your last insurance company was, and if you do have any existing conditions that they may want to check on (my new one actually checked up with my previous insurance company about my annual smear-test, which of course I had stated on the form as it's a standard procedure, not an "existing condition", unless being female counts ) they they may do it right away, to assess their own risk in taking you on.

This is probably a moot point. You clearly have an annual policy with 3 month cancellation. This means you can only notify cancellation within 3 months of the end of a calendar year, effective end of that year. You missed it for this year. To stop paying is breach of your insurance contract - not only does your insurance cover lapse, but you have defaulted on the payments. German companies will sue to get back the last cent and more of anything you contractually are obliged to pay.

Of course you could play the de-register/"I'm leaving the country"/cancel/re-register trick, but that's fraud, and as soon as you register for any other insurance (even non-health) the German global insurance database would grass you up immediately.

Your only get-out clause is to hope the premiums increase. That's usually extenuating circumstances to cancel at short notice following advice of the rise.

And as other poseters have suggested, think carefully before doing this - while many expat deals seem good, and cheap, they often exclude the cover you may really need. If you do end up staying here, for example to marry and have a family you will also find that other insurers (especially the public system) take a dim view of people that chop and change...

Thanks for all the replies. YL6 - have you ever considering applying your skills to writing a new Practicalities for Expats in Munich guidebook?

So, how about if someone becomes unemployed - does that mean they can break the contract? Or what if someone goes freelancer and then maybe the expected income comes to less than the 47,000EUR (or whatever the barrier is) per year...?

Also, I appreciate all the warnings about moving to these cheaper schemes, but I'm trying to make sure this does not go off-topic.

You are only allowed to have private health insurance if your income is over €47,250 per annum. Below that and you are required to have public insurance and a private company should not be insuring you. if you your income drops below that then an existing contract is (should be) automatically terminated. This is "exceptional grounds for terminating the contract", just like dying or moving abroad, or for that matter a rise in premiums.

When I became unemployed earlier this year, the arbeitsamt agreed to pay my private health insurance and so the contract continued. So, even though my income did drop below the magic figure, it did NOT result in the automatic termination of my private health insurance contract.

A freelancer does not have a regular annual income, so how does it work for them?

i can attest to that. but my question is about PUBLIC insurance. i just didn't want to start the 81st topic.

i am changing jobs and as a result, will be making a wee bit less money, so i thought about changing my health insurance. now, i know, as it was a few years back, you could cancel your contract if your insurance raised their prices. mine has done this repeatedly over the last few years, going from 11,9% up to now 12,9%. if i change to the cheapeast option, i could save about 175€ a year, which isn't so much, but i'll have about 150€ less a month now, so it does add up.

does anyhow have any ideas about this?

I got lucky in the end - they increased my premium and so I was able to get out of the contract. I switched over to Axa PPP which worked out at about 850EUR for the first year (Comprehensive cover for europe - includes things like checkups at the doctor & dentist) and only negligible selbstbeteiligung.

Contrast that with Inter KV going at 3600EUR/year plus 250EUR/year selbstbeteiligung.

True, the cover is not quite so good. In particular dental cover is only up to about 350EUR/year but then there is extra if you damage your teeth accidentally.

Contrary to popular belief, generally, cancer treatment IS covered. As another example, physiotherapy is also covered. The guy I spoke to at Axa PPP talked about whether the illness responds to treatment or not. If not then its probably not covered. I'm not sure exactly what this means.

My general impression, is that if a doctor says there is little hope of curing your illness, then AXA will not pay. Otherwise, they will. But dont take my word for it!

Also, importantly, you get a certain amount of cover while you are outside of your cover area so that sorts out my holidays. On top of that, my cover area is europe whereas I think my private german health insurance was only covering me while I am in germany...

Anyway, thats enough of the sales pitch.

When I signed up for Expatriate Healthcare (very similar to AXA) they also told me that it would cover serious illnesses like cancer etc, however a little while back YL6 found a clause in the terms and conditions that did indeed exclude cronic illnesses..

Anyway, if I was a freelancer I would also take this insurance. If you get a serious illness and you come from the UK, Australia, Canada etc you could just go home to get treated. That would be a big pain in the ass, but so would a life threatening illness, and the chances are low..

Well, if you're from Canada there's a three month waiting period before you're covered again. So if it's cancer or another serious illness, three months could be way too long. Just something to keep in mind.

Admittedly I havent read the T&Cs, but the crap they sent me in the post gives all sorts of example scenarios related to chronic conditions. I'm reading one now...

Example B

Carole develops a lump in her left breast which is diagnosed as breast cancer. Her specialist recommends that she has a mastectomy (breast removal) followed by a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

We would pay for the consultations and diagnostic tests with the specialist to establish the diagnosis. We would then pay for the mastectomy and the course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy aimed at bringing the condition into remission or cure. In addition there are some chemotherapy treatments that are given for prolonged periods of time eg Herceptin in some types of breast cancer. Such prolonged treatment normally falls outside benefit but in the case of cancer we make an exception. Thus the use of such drugs will be covered for a period of time as described in your policy document or the period of the drug’s licence if this is shorter.

More can be found here: https://quoteandbuy.healthinsurance.tescofi..._conditions.pdf

Nice to know they make "exceptions" for cancer, but that's one of many chronic conditions you may suffer in later life...

Does anyone know what the canellation period is for DKV health insurance. I assumed as I got the poilcy in July 2 years ago I could just cancel one month before it came to the 3 year mark, which is what some colleagues told me. But it seems from this thread it is only at the end of the calendar year, I just can't understand all the legal nonsense in German on my contact. Any advice?

there are two ways in general to cancel a private health insurance contract whilst staying as a resident in Germany:
a) whenever the insurance does raise the premium, you have a special right to cancel the insurance within a timeframe of usually 4 weeks regardless of contract duration
otherwise you need to check how long of a contract duration was agreed upon /signed by you when you started the insurance. A number of insurances offer 3 year contracts, others most often offer 1 year contract. Usually the policy papers state that contract will automatically renew/extend if you do not give notice 3 month before the end of the contract time. Usually after 1 year duration the end of the contract period is defined as end of calendar year to make things easier for all.

Unless your DKV has increased the premium recently, my reading of the situation would be that you can cancel in September effective 1st of January 2009. To be absolutely sure one would need to read the actualy policy print-out, though.

If you intend to leave Germany for good, you only have to hand in the copy of your formal de-registration in Germany because German health insurance is based on residency in Germany, i.e. if you leave the country the insurance will cease to be effective.

Cheerio

Thanks Starshollow! I'll try giving it another read

It's not true that patients with private insurance get in front of the line. I have private insurance and every time I have to wait for my turn - sometimes even 2 hours' wait - AFTER all these old ladies and what nots!

Rant off.

My question is, do you cancel an existing private health insurance first or do you sign up for a new one first? What/Can you be left with no insurance at all because e.g. you default on your previous insurer and the new one won't sign you up???

I don't know the answer to your questions, but I do know that if you want to cancel then it has to be on a particular DAY of the year. Not just anytime before the 3 month cancellation period, as you would think. We got dinged that way -- we thought that if we sent a letter before the 3 months, that would do it. Nope. It's one particular day and if you miss it, you're screwed. You'll be insured for another year.

Even then, they'll probably try to find another excuse not to cancel the contract. You have to fight hard to get out of those things.

Gills: sorry to correct you there: you can send the cancellation not right beforehand, but you have to cancel the insurance per a given date and you have to send in the cancellation with "certified mail with delivery confirmation" then nothing can happen to you and the cancellation is legally alright like this.

Zimmer: you should only cancel if you have the confirmation of acceptance from the new insurance in your hand. If you cancel before and you find that the new insurance denies your application or suddenly demands a much higher additional risk premium or exclusion of some coverage because of some health problem you did not consider to be so bad, you could end up a certain creek without a paddle, because your old insurance might then deny to take you back as well. this is one issue I would play safe entirely if I was you. Since without a sudden increase of the premium you can only cancel with 3 month notice at the end of the insurance year, you have ample time to get an insurance confirmation before you actually drop the cancellation letter to the old insurance.

Cheerio

Yes, this is what I was trying to say. Though it's a 3 month cancellation period, you can't just send a letter anytime before the 3 month period, it has to go out on a particular day, and you have to have proof. It's not even enough that the letter is dated that day!

It's an unethical evasion tactic to make it difficult for a client to get out of a contract, and particularly predatory for people who do not understand the language. But it's the way it is, insurance companies here play rough and people who get involved with them need to be aware of that.

you are quite right about the "taking advantage of people who don't fully understand the system and/or the lingo" and sometimes this makes me really very mad as it is so unfair and stupid at the same time on the long term, as we in Germany are more and depending on skilled people from outside coming in to balance our own demographic and educational shortfallings and treatment like this will not exactly be considered as good marketing to get more people interested in coming to and working in Germany...

I still don't under stand what you mean with the particular day, though. The cancellation period is 3 month to the end of the insurance year - which is usually the calendar year. So you will cancel effective with Jan. 1st of the following year and you can send in your later of cancellation any day before the October 1st and the cancellation will be effective, as long as you can show proof that you did send the cancellation after all. It is different if you want to cancel because of a premium rise, then you have only 4 weeks window of opportunity... Either I don't understand correctly what you mean or there is another misunderstanding there... perhaps we can clarify this with PM or here?

Cheerio