The German healthcare system is a topic as complex as our beer law and as efficient as a Deutsche Bahn train on a good day. Just kidding, I love you, Deutsche Bahn. But if you’ve ever wondered how we stay [gesund]¹ while consuming absurd amounts of bread, cheese, and beer, this article is for you!

My god, it’s going to be one of those articles where I throw in lots of puns, isn’t it. It’s just one of those days.

Anyway!

What are the basics?

In Germany, we have a dual healthcare system, which means that we have two types of insurance. The first one is the public health insurance, the [Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung]², which covers the vast majority of the population, a good 90%. It’s funded by income-based contributions, which is roughly 14.6% of our salary, split between us and our employer. The insurance covers all essentials: doctor visits, hospital stays, prescription and the really, really important sick note for work.

The other one is the private health insurance. It’s only available to high earners (I believe it’s around 70,000€ per year) or self-employed individuals. Like the private insurance here in the UK, it’ll offer usually faster appointments and sometimes fancier hospital rooms – though I absolutely can’t say anything negative about the waiting times even as a publicly insured citizen. Well, it’s definitely worse in the UK when it comes to that.

If you live and work in Germany, you’re automatically enrolled in public insurance, unless you opt for private.

What’s included?

Going to the GP, for starters. It’s always free, but there might be a small co-payment for specialists. Hospital stays are mostly covered, unless you want to chip in for certain things, like a single room. Our prescriptions also partially fall under it – you usually only pay around 5-10€ for whatever it is you need. If you’re underage, you’ll never pay for your medicine – this includes even things like the contraception pill! Different to the UK, the dental is also completely free, unless you want some bonus stuff that goes beyond the normal check. Oh, and cleaning, as well as sorting out issues, is not bonus stuff. That’s included.

We do love some alternative medicines as well, like homeopathy and herbal remedies. Some, not all, insurances cover these, too!

Sick notes

We take sick days very seriously in Germany – which is mostly due to the fact that we don’t have a blanket amount paid of days we’re allowed to be off sick, as is the case here in the UK. If you’re only missing work a day or two – that’s usually fine, depending on the profession and company. But as soon as you’re sick for three or more days, a visit to the doctors is mandatory, as they’ll have to give you a check and write you a [Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung]³ – a legal statement that you’ll have to mail your employer and which says: “Yes, Ellie is indeed sick. She has to stay home from this to that date.”

Germany has one of the best healthcare systems in the world – we’re currently on the 7th place. Well, I say “we”, but living in the UK, I obviously don’t benefit from it anymore. I do appreciate the NHS and living here for years, I don’t have a single negative experience to report, except for long waiting times and being surprised at having to pay for the dentist. Oh, and the fact that your GP does your smear test – and that only every three years? In Germany, we’ve seeing a gynaecologist – and that annually!

But either way, the German healthcare system is one of the best. Sure, it comes with its fair share of bureaucracy, like everything we do over there, but once you got the hang out of it, you’ll appreciate the fact that you can see any doctor anywhere – all you need is your [Gesundheitskarte]⁴ – your health insurance ID card.

[Picture by Fiona Murray-deGraff – thank you!]

1. gesund – healthy! ↩︎
2. Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung – Made up of “Gesetzlich” (state) and the compound word “Krank” (sick) and “Versicherung” (insurance); our state mandated sick insurance. ↩︎
3. Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung – marvellous word. Made out of three terms: “Arbeit” (work) + “Unfähigkeit” (incapability) + “Bescheinigung” (certification) ↩︎
4. Gesundheitskarte – “Gesundheit” (health) + “Karte” (card), the second most important electronic card we have in Germany after our national ID card. It stores all our health-related data, which is why you can go wherever you need to go without issues! ↩︎