Being a private patient in Germany - any experience please?

[Boolah]

Hello

We moved from Belgium to Germany about 4 months ago and I am trying to navigate my way around the health system. Took child to KinderArtze (sorry lack of umlaut) and was very shocked at the cost - it looked as if a mark up of 2.3 times had been added to the billl. I went for some tests last week and a red label was put on my paper I think to indicate I was a private patient - why? A lady at kindergarten talked of her German husband having private insurance but she (German) and the children are in the state system - she said his bill for vaccinations for a trip was 3 times higher than hers and many doctors love getting private patients. I have now been told I need to go back for a further test (but the Dr on the telephone did not know why and did not know what was wrong in my blood - something was high or low!!).

Not got a good feeling about the health system here - did not feel anything like this is Belgium.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Maybe this article will help.
If you or your partner(if you have one, it´s not clear from the op) are employed here the company should be able to give some advice on sorting out insurance. If you get a state insurance such as the AOK you don´t need to pay anything up front to the doctor, but have monthly contributions taken from your salary. If you´re privately insured you have to pay up front, but can reclaim the costs from your private insurance to which you also pay a monthy charge.

The health system here is actually very good, but it is obligatory to have some form of insurance.

Hello hupa - maybe I have not explained myself well - I have no doubt the system is very good - it is the cost that I am querying. We have private insurance through my DH's work and so we will get the money back - but I wonder if patients with private insurance pay more and if so why?

BTW - thank you for the link to the article.

Oh, sorry I misunderstood.

The prices that doctors are allowed to charge to private patients was drawn up about 30 years ago. It´s called the GoÄ (Gebührungordnung für Ärzte). Doctors are allowed to multiply by an agreed factor to bring the prices in line with inflation. The standard factor is 2,3 although somethings maybe less and a specialist doctor may be able to cahrge 3,5.

This system isn´t necessary for patients in the public insurances, because the prices are reviewed annually (I think).

That´s probably as clear as mud, but feel free to ask for any clarification.

Thank you - does that mean that Drs earn more money out of private patients? the German lady at Kindergarten who I referred to made it sound like some drs see private patients as lucrative and that unsettles me if it is the case.

When I took my child to the Kinder Artze and saw him for 5 mins (10 if you want to me generous) he prescribed cream for ezcema (she was already having treatment and the cream had run out) and he said he would see her in a week and saw her again for 5 mins - total cost around 100 euros - much more than Belgium and I thought Belgium was an expensive country!

The German system is quite confusing for a newcomer I think. Here you are either state insured or privately insured. If a husband is state insured, his spouse and children are state insured with him for free. If the husband is privately insured, normally the children will be required to be privately insured too, even if the spouse is state insured.

There is a lot of hooing and hahing about the inequality of the system and state insured people complain that they have to wait longer for referrals to specialists and from what I can see this really is the case. If you phone for an appointment they will often ask you first if you are private or state insured.

Yes the prices do seem high on the itemised private bill but I think we are just oblivious to how expensive state treatments are because we never see the bill e.g. my baby's two vaccinations came to 150 Euros for the actual jab and that was before I paid for the doctor's time and examination.

So yes it feels like a two tier system. But I think some of the 'extras' for private patients are quite frivolous e.g. private room in hospital and I feel that the state care I receive is excellent and that antenatal / postnatal care in Germany is vastly superior to the UK.

Incidentally unless you are in the family set up I outlined above, state insurance tends to be more expensive than private because the private companies only take on patients above a certain income threshold and subject to a health check. Any problems that show up on that can lead to the premiums being bumped massively.