Depression strikes. Nothing is going my way. Blah blah blah blah blah…
We spent three hours meeting with some private health insurance guy last night only to be told that I am probably too high risk to be insured with them (back problems, migraines, birthing of future little people, longer life expectancy for females, etc = you will cost us too much in the long run). This irks me to no end. I don’t like these private insurances. In Germany, “everyone” is covered by public insurance, which costs a certain percentage of your income (ours is 13.9%). But if you make over a certain amount (I think it’s € 50,000 annually), you can opt out of the public system and pay a lower amount for health insurance. The thing is, they only want healthy, rich, 25 year old men (the guy told us even Rainer would have to pay a premium because although he is completely healthy otherwise, he has tree & grass pollen allergies). So the people most able to afford paying this 13.9% (ie, the rich), can opt out of contributing to the system, leaving the middle class to support the poor. If everyone was forced to be in the public system, they could probably drop this percentage a little.
Anyways, I’m getting off point. See, Rainer is becoming a Beamter, which is some special government lifetime employee thing here in Germany. So if Rainer is privately insured, the state will pay 50% of health costs and the private insurance covers the other 50%, while I would be covered 70% by the state and any future little people would be covered 80%. So the insurance company is basically saying that paying 30% of my health costs is too high risk for them. And here’s the kicker… if we stay in public, we don’t get the coverage from the state. This means that we pay twice as much (because employers pay half of your insurance cost normally, but not for Beamters). So this amounts to a state subsidy for the private insurance companies. I don’t get why this is allowed. I think EVERYONE, rich or poor, should be in public insurance, then if you want additional coverage, you can get private insurance on top.
And the weather sucks today.
And my feet hurt.
And from the job apps I sent out, I got only one response offering me a data entry position that does not even require a high school diploma.
I’m going back to bed.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Bizarre system, no? I am a, uh, semi-Beamter and deliberately went for the state system because I wanted to show my support for the exemplary health care mechanism in Germany… have been paying about 30% more than I needed to have all these years and endured the downsides (no private beds, many treatments only on a self-paying basis), and now regret it because now I am paying even more than before because I am subsidising not only the really needy but the greedy private insurance companies. Would it be an option for you to let Rainer get into the private Krankenkasse, and join the state system separately? Anyhow it seems to me that maybe your advisor didn’t know his ropes.. I am not sure they are allowed to refuse you entry, and besides, there are a lot of private health companies out there, I bet you just need to shop around.
Ach, what a nightmare. No wonder the population growth is slowing down. Not nice to face a financial punishment for having ovaries.
have some chocolate!
since i turned 25 in may, i have to pay now for health care, too. even though i am a student without any income besides bafög.
blah blah blah. My foul mood continues today.
Anyways, we are looking in to Rainer going private and me staying public. I think I would then pay 13.9% on half of Rainer’s income. We did fill out the application, and we may get a decent offer. Who knows? I guess I’ll be able to report back on this in about three weeks.
It is unfair being punished for having ovaries! I don’t like health insurance risk assessors very much. I think they are statisticians turned evil.
And I’ve been mainlining Lebküchen Herzen all day today… ohhhh blessed sugar high….
I hope you feel better. Those health insurance hurt my head. I agree…If you are going to do public insurance, do it for everyone.