Germany

[DrSambo]

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My wife and I are moving to Hanau, Germany in about a month. I will be taking a job as a civilian contractor family physician working in a U.S. army clinic.

As a contractor, the U.S. will be providing no benefits.

Can anybody recommend a good (and cheap) source of health insurance for my wife and me? We are both in our 30's and in good health, no smoking, etc.

Thanks,

Sam

 

[BellKicker]

I remember when I was searching the www looking for malpractice insurance for a rotation in the US, there were tons of sites offering health inusrance to US "expats". I imagine your travel agent could point you in the right direction.

On a side note, while I imagine you'll want to be covered anyway, all emergency care is free regardless of nationality.

 

[DrSambo]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Miklos]

My wife and I are moving to Hanau, Germany in about a month. I will be taking a job as a civilian contractor family physician working in a U.S. army clinic.

As a contractor, the U.S. will be providing no benefits.

Can anybody recommend a good (and cheap) source of health insurance for my wife and me? We are both in our 30's and in good health, no smoking, etc.

Thanks,

Sam

You may find that if you buy the insurance locally, that it may be significantly cheaper than the regular ex-pat insurance. The downside is that you would only be covered in Germany (or at the most, the EU). If you can live with that, you may be able to save a bundle. If you require coverage in both the US and Europe, be prepared for a fair amount of sticker-shock.

 

[kmturn]

Hi Sam!

I'm currently living in Germany and am hoping that I can give you some advice on getting German health insurance. If you are a freelance employee (without an official contract from the military), then you are considered to be doing a freiberufliche Taetigkeit, which is work without a contract. If you must get a visa to stay in Germany, meaning that this is NOT organized by the U.S. military, then you will most likely be forced to get German health insurance. If you have German citizenship or your wife is German, then you will be able to get what's called gezetzliche Krankenkasse or public health insurance. If you have no contract and no German citizenship, then you'll need expat insurance or private insurace. My private insurance is about $200 a month here, and I didn't shop around at all. In fact, it was cheaper
than the public insurance companies that I spoke with. (If you DO have a contract from the military, then you can get public insurance). Private insurace also buys you less waiting time for appointments in Germany and other perks, which you probably know if you've read up on the German health care system. Best of luck in Hanau!

 

[DrSambo]

Hi Sam!

I'm currently living in Germany and am hoping that I can give you some advice on getting German health insurance. If you are a freelance employee (without an official contract from the military), then you are considered to be doing a freiberufliche Taetigkeit, which is work without a contract. If you must get a visa to stay in Germany, meaning that this is NOT organized by the U.S. military, then you will most likely be forced to get German health insurance. If you have German citizenship or your wife is German, then you will be able to get what's called gezetzliche Krankenkasse or public health insurance. If you have no contract and no German citizenship, then you'll need expat insurance or private insurace. My private insurance is about $200 a month here, and I didn't shop around at all. In fact, it was cheaper
than the public insurance companies that I spoke with. (If you DO have a contract from the military, then you can get public insurance). Private insurace also buys you less waiting time for appointments in Germany and other perks, which you probably know if you've read up on the German health care system. Best of luck in Hanau!

Hi,

I appreciate the advice.

Basically, I will not have a contract directly with the military. I will be working for a U.S. company that has a contract with the military. Neither my wife nor I is a German citizen.

From what you write, I am thinking that we will need to get private insurance.
Can you recommend a good source? I'm not too interested in something that will necessarily cover care in the U.S. if it will be cheaper to just be covered in Germany and/or the E.U.

Thanks,

Sam

 

[kmturn]

Hi Sam!

I am also not sure which companies are private and which are public. I have insurance with Central, which is an insurance provider that has its headquarters in Cologne and has branches all over Germany. They seem to offer pretty good coverage, and I think there is also coverage up to like 2500 Euros if you have an emergency in a foreign country, in case you plan on travelling while you are here.

The next question that these companies will probably be concerned with is how long you are going to stay in Germany. When I signed with Central I signed a year contract, because I will be in Germany for one year. I'm not sure what they offer for the short-term, if that's a concern for you.

Just a reminder, make sure you get all of this insurance stuff squared away before you apply for a German residency permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis), if your company/military is not taking care of that for you. I would begin on it as soon as I got to Germany, because it takes about 3 weeks to process. That means after you apply, you get a Bescheinigung, (a certificate of coverage) in the mail three weeks later. You have to show this in order to get a visa to stay in Germany.

You and your wife will love it here, it's a great country! Please let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂

-Krista

 

[kmturn]

Sam,

I found this website, which lists most of the private insurance providers in Germany as well as their contact information. That should be a great help in finding a provider. The URL is: http://www.pkv.de/default.asp

 

[Daja]

Hello Sam,

I am a medical student in Germany married to an American. We have just gone through all the private health insurances and found that AXA has the best offer if you are in the medical field. It is the insurance most doctors have here (and the other one is BARMENIA). Physicians pay much less and so do their spouses. For only 5 Euro or so you can also buy an additional travel insurance which will cover all costs, even in the states, for a stay of up to 3 or 4 months. It can also be transferred if you move back.

Have a good time in Hanau!

Julia

 

[DrSambo]

Hello Sam,

I am a medical student in Germany married to an American. We have just gone through all the private health insurances and found that AXA has the best offer if you are in the medical field. It is the insurance most doctors have here (and the other one is BARMENIA). Physicians pay much less and so do their spouses. For only 5 Euro or so you can also buy an additional travel insurance which will cover all costs, even in the states, for a stay of up to 3 or 4 months. It can also be transferred if you move back.

Have a good time in Hanau!

Julia

Hi Julia,

I really appreciate your response. I searced the web for AXA and found a british company AXA PPP healthcare. Is the same AXA you referenced?

I was unable to locate a website for BARMENIA, however. Do you know of a link for this company?

Lastly, I sent on online inquiry to the AXA and received a quote for insurance for myself and my wife for 1938 pounds sterling/year for their prestige plan. They didn't mention any sort of discount for physicians and I was unsure if your post was indicating that such a discount exists or not. Do I need to ask them for such a discount?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[Daja]

Hi Julia,

I really appreciate your response. I searced the web for AXA and found a british company AXA PPP healthcare. Is the same AXA you referenced?

I was unable to locate a website for BARMENIA, however. Do you know of a link for this company?

Lastly, I sent on online inquiry to the AXA and received a quote for insurance for myself and my wife for 1938 pounds sterling/year for their prestige plan. They didn't mention any sort of discount for physicians and I was unsure if your post was indicating that such a discount exists or not. Do I need to ask them for such a discount?

Thanks,

Sam

Hi Sam,

The British site you found is from the British AXA, the same company...
I have found www.axa.com which is the AXA world group and contains company and investment information.
The site for Germany is www.axa.de. If you read German you can find their plans and rates under :
Personenversicherungen - Krankenversicherung
Orientierung - Produkt?bersicht (there you will find the plan for "Humanmediziner")

The Barmenia site unfortunately is only in German as well under www.barmenia.de, where you must go to:
Produkte
Krankenversicherungen
Krankenversicherung f?r ?rtzte (their special plan for physicians)

Both sites have contact forms and also a rate calculator service.
Also, both companies' health plans have been rated very well by independant financial test magazines.

I really hope this can help you, I don?t envy you having to go through this insurance jungle in a foreign language it was confusing enough for me!

Good luck!

Julia

 

[DrSambo]

Hi Sam,

The British site you found is from the British AXA, the same company...
I have found www.axa.com which is the AXA world group and contains company and investment information.
The site for Germany is www.axa.de. If you read German you can find their plans and rates under :
Personenversicherungen - Krankenversicherung
Orientierung - Produkt?bersicht (there you will find the plan for "Humanmediziner")

The Barmenia site unfortunately is only in German as well under www.barmenia.de, where you must go to:
Produkte
Krankenversicherungen
Krankenversicherung f?r ?rtzte (their special plan for physicians)

Both sites have contact forms and also a rate calculator service.
Also, both companies' health plans have been rated very well by independant financial test magazines.

I really hope this can help you, I don?t envy you having to go through this insurance jungle in a foreign language it was confusing enough for me!

Good luck!

Julia

Julia,

You've been very helpful.

Unfortunately, I don't read any German. I tried translating parts of the site using the online translator at alta-vista, but the results were pretty incoherrent.

You don't know if they have an English language site anywhere do you?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[Daja]

Julia,

You've been very helpful.

Unfortunately, I don't read any German. I tried translating parts of the site using the online translator at alta-vista, but the results were pretty incoherrent.

You don't know if they have an English language site anywhere do you?

Thanks,

Sam

Hello Sam,

I have not found a site about the German services in English! It might be easiest to just wait until you get over here to clear things with an insurance person (with someone to translate maybe). You could also just try calling one of their service people and see if they speak English. I am sure there also will be people at the base that can tell you more.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Julia

 

[DrSambo]

Hello Sam,

I have not found a site about the German services in English! It might be easiest to just wait until you get over here to clear things with an insurance person (with someone to translate maybe). You could also just try calling one of their service people and see if they speak English. I am sure there also will be people at the base that can tell you more.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Julia

Thanks for the advice.

I actually emailed the AXA.DE site and got a sort of generic reply in English.
They requested some info from me which I provided. I'm still waiting on a reply to that.

Sam

 

[fofo232]

i have graduated recently from jordanian university and started learning german language ,i want to ask if i can get surgical residency with salary from first in germany.

 

[fofo232]

i have graduated recently from jordanian university and started learning german language ,i want to ask if i can get surgical residency with salary from first in germany.