I was with Bank BKK, but later on I found someone offering 11.9%, which was BKK-ALP. Now they have silently raised the % and when I casually checked their site, it was 13.3%. I was shocked, as this was even higher what Bank BKK offers!

I have sent them a cancellation, and got the confirmation too!

So do visit this site frequently and make a comparison from time to time:
http://www.geldsparen.de/content/finanzen/Gesundheit/GKVrechner.php?openmenue=2&opensub=1076

or if it doesnt work:
http://www.geldsparen.de/

well usually "expensive" mandatory health insurance companies offer a little bit better service, if you happen to call them and ask question etc.. (but concerning the payments of the sickness etc.. they all have to give the same service..)

And the "expensive" health insurance companies offer quite often "bonus" programmes (you need to participate explicitly )so if you dont go to doctor that often in a year.. they reimburse you some amount back at the end of the year.. (depending on your payments) so you usually end up paying %1 percent lower even if you are a customer of an expensive mandatory health insurance company.. sometimes it is not really worth to change between the mandatory health insurance companies because of this bonus programme.. so check the web site of your health insurance company before taking further steps.. ;)

If you think about a private insurance company then it is a whole different story.. ;)

Regards,

Lacrima

I dont earn that much to change to a prvate insurance company! :-)

@lacrima:

I just checked the website:
http://www.bkk-alp.de/index.php?id=73

I may get 50 euro...upto a maximum of 90 euro bonus, but by changing the BKK I save 240 euro (120 for me and 120 for my employer!)

So the pros outweigh the cons, right?

btw, do you really value the telephone service that Barmer or AOK´s offer? I mean, what do they inform you? What is Acupuncture, and where the nearest doc is? Anyway if you go out of Germany you need another Auslandsreisekrankenversicherung.

"upto a maximum of 90 euro" "120 for me"

so you see.. you can almost reach the same level of savings without changing the insurance company.. so why to bother to change it for 20-30 Euros in a year.. and forget the employer part.. that part is not our problem.. ;) (unless he pays you the amount he saves.. ofcourse )

Regards,

Lacrima

hey guys,

if you really want to save money and get reasonalble coverage switch to private and esp. to DKK.

I saved a lot after changing to this. only thing you must look for is... if you have children then its best to stay with BKK or AOL.

@Fred, I am sure if u are in IT field , you will be able to switch to private.

"I saved a lot after changing to this"

Be careful guys.. government is planing some reforms in this area (known as "Gesundheitsreform" in the press) people in private insurance will have to pay more in the near future and the monthly payments will be comparable to mandatory insurance payments..

If you are married and your wife is not working than mandatory insurance also makes sense.. not necessarily having children justifies the participation in mandatory insurance.. (this was discussed several times in detail in trust7 )

other than that.. it is not easy to switch back to mandatory insurance when you are once in private..

Regards,

Lacrima

I dont earn that much to change to a prvate insurance company!

the complete story with mandatory insurance companies shows that Germany ignores its constitution and basic human rights. because you are not allowed to have a good health care if you do not earn enough money, and some people pay more for mandatory health insurance than they would pay for private one!

people in private insurance will have to pay more in the near future and the monthly payments will be comparable to mandatory insurance payments..

i very doubt it. not when Union has a biggest fraction in the parliament!

HI All,

I would like to discuss the other aspect of this insurance which no one mentioned till now.

In the government Insurance there are 4 categories. i.e is cumpolsory, freiwillige, freiberuflicher...

So people earning less than the cap will have to take compulsory Insurance, but people with income more than the cap can take up as a freiwillige.. I think I am right here and the insurance cost is calculated as a percentage for the cap amount and not for the whole income. And with a family including a kid it is costing me around EURO 500 per month (both parts), so actual cost is half of the amount.

And I compared many private health insurances and no one is less than this amount for all of us together. Even excluding the kid its more than the Priv. insurance.

So I would suggest to have a Gov. insurance as I was in private for the last 5.5 yrs.

regards
Jackal.

So people earning less than the cap will have to take compulsory Insurance

not exactly true. if you are self-employed, you do not have to take compulsory insurance even if your income is so small that you get some "Zuschuss" to it from the state. the reason is very simple: it's not really possible to calculate either brutto or netto income of self-employed person in advance, in case of self-employed person it's even possible that one particular year will end up in losses. with employees everything is much-much more simple because their employers must do everything and insurance companies just become their money. and there is one more reason: nobody can pay for self-employed person but himself. if he decides not to pay, it's really not easy to make him pay those money

And I compared many private health insurances and no one is less than this amount for all of us together. Even excluding the kid its more than the Priv. insurance.

well if you have wife and a kid and your wife doesn't bring any money home, it's one kind of a story. but if you are alone or if both you and your wife work and everyone gets good money, the things look much more different ...

everyone should be able to make their own decision: whether he chooses state or private insurance. and it were possible to calculate amounts that private insured without kids should pay as an additional tax, in order to account for a situation that most kids are state insured. or it were possible to eliminate state insurance, abide private insurance companies to insure everybody and calculate how much money people with kids and not high income should get back from a state so that they can be insured privately.

i mean the whole system were much simplier if everything were regulated just by amount of income tax for every single group of individuals with same conditions, completely without all those compulsory insurance regulations. why the system is made much more complicated? here is one good point of view on the subject:

http://fufor.twoday.net/20060623/ (Ein Euro Staat)

i would say though that the authour didn't understand everything correctly regarding Anwaltszwang. The people that become Prozesskostenhilfe become worst possible lawyers as well, just because state saves money on them and pays their lawyers less money than they would normally become from their richer clients. therefore courts of law approve Prozesskostenhilfe only when they see that a case will be easily won.

HI All,

I just took the Govt. Insurance as Friwillige since I did not want to think whether my insurance will cover this or that, and also directly receive the bills transfer the amount and then claim. Its a long process and consumes some private time.

One more important difference between Priv and Govt insurance which many people are compalining like "I told I am private Insured and I got the appointment immediately". This factor the doctor himself directly explained me what it is. There are specialist doctors who allocate their days time i guess around 1 - 2 hours for general visiting hours. This is the time slot where appointments for the Govt. Insured people are given. And the rest of the hours are used for giving appointments to the Private insured people. The reason for this is, for the Govt. insured people the hourly rate is decided by the Govt. which is very less, were as for the Priv. insured people the doctor can claim his hourly rate, which is much more than the other case.

So when choosing Govt. or private keep this also in mind. If you are a regular patient and need some appontments with a very good specialist doctor regularly then dont think of the money pais and take the private with full/additional (Chief doctor) coverage. This will reduce your frustration for waiting at the doctor which will surely inturn help your health to improve.

So wishing all of you good health.. end of my tips

regards
jackal.

@jackal,

So I would suggest to have a Gov. insurance as I was in private for the last 5.5 yrs.

I was told that its not possible to change from private insurance to govt. insurance. The only possibility is when you lose your job, and then you are automatically insured by govt.

So how did you manage to change from private to govt. ?

HI,

@HB

They also told me the same when I called them up. But in my case I started in Germany with Priv. insurance and was never in Govt. insurance. And also the fact is for the past 18 months I had an International insurance which was not based out of Germany.

Well, may be you can discuss in personal with them which will always help, and also better not to call them but use their online service so that they prove everything and send you a correct reply.

I also had the opinion that since I called them up and their colleagues said I cannot come to Govt. back, I in personal went to the office explained them very clearly and also told them I don’t want to take any risk and also can take up a private insurance. but the lady and her colleague checked in a book which was some kind of dictionary and called around on phone and said its ok and now I got the cards and all for the whole family.

I HOPE AT SOME POINT OF TIME THEY WONT COME BACK AND SAY - OOOPS THERE WAS A MISTAKE WE SHOULD HAVE NOT TAKEN YOU IN.... I don’t know what happens in that case. May be some experts can shed light whether this kind of thing can happen in the future. But I strongly believe if in Germany something is confirmed by a Paper then I am the winner...

Regards
Jackal.

I HOPE AT SOME POINT OF TIME THEY WONT COME BACK AND SAY - OOOPS THERE WAS A MISTAKE WE SHOULD HAVE NOT TAKEN YOU IN.... I don’t know what happens in that case.

i would like it if they came back with something like that in let's say two years! because then they should pay me back really good money! ;)