Archives for August 2008

Krankenversicherung & Pflegeversicherung

Krankenversicherung is the name given to the main form of health insurance in Germany.  It does not, however, cover all the costs that you pay when you visit a doctor in Germany.

Although the doctor’s fee will usually be covered, there is a fee of 10EUR per quarter that has to be charged by the doctor and forwarded to the insurance company.  Also, consultations for holiday vaccinations are generally not covered.

When the doctor writes a prescription, the costs of that prescription may be in part covered by the insurance, or it may well be a private prescription and thus not covered at all by the health insurance.

Under certain circumstances the insurance may, however, cover other costs such as taking leave from work to look after a sick child, or loss of earnings during a stay in hospital.

Some insurance companies offer extra options, such as staying in a single room when you are in hospital, or being taken care of by a consultant rather than a junior doctor.

Krankenversicherung is usually paid for directly out of a person’s wages as the employer pays a contribution towards the insurance.  Self-employed peopple have to pay the entire amount themselves.  The amount due is dependent on someone’s income.

Pflegeversicherung was introduced in 1995 and covers the situation when people are unable to care for themselves.  They are classified into different Pflegestufen and the insurance pays for the relevant care appropriate to the Pflegestufe.

Not only is this insurance paid separately, but in order to assist in financing it a public holiday – Buß- und Bettag – was reverted to a normal working day.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Disclaimer: this podcast is a simple explanation for non-native speakers. For insurance advice, please contact a Versicherungsvertreter or Versicherungsmakler.

Filling up at short notice

Today I had an appointment about 100km today, and it was only last night that I realised that I didn’t have enough bio-ethanol in the tank for the return journey.

For the first time, I had to make a detour to fill up with bio-ethanol, meaning that I had to leave earlier to allow enough time to drive to Bad Homburg before I hit the motorway.

Of course, I could have driving down the road to the nearest petrol station and filled up with normal 95-octane fuel, but with that sort of fuel costing around 50% more than bio-ethanol, I felt it was worth making the detour.

But the whole situation did make me conscious of the restrictions of the bio-ethanol fuel.  After all, I don’t get as many kilometres out of a tank as I used to with normal petrol.  I quick check of the list of petrol stations that stock E85 also showed me that there was nothing suitable in the area that I was travelling to.  Well, at least not without going out of my way and looking for it.

So in the end I took the quickest option and visited my usual petrol station, and wished it hadn’t been necessary.  Will the main petrol stations, especially those on motorway service stations, ever start stocking bio-ethanol?

Another referendum in Bolivia

President Morales has announced that the people of Bolivia are to get the chance to vote in a referendum on the future constitution of the country.  The referendum is due to take place on 7th December.

The big question is: will this be the final decision on a number of policitcal issues?

One of the changes concerns the re-election of the Bolivian President.  If he wins the vote, President Morales could be re-elected a number of times more than is currently allowed.  I for one am wondering why such a step is necessary.  After all, other countries have rules to stop a President from ruling ad infinitum, and it probably does them good to have a change very few years.  Removing this rule in Bolivia would surely be a step backwards?

The other major issue is that of autonomy for some of Bolivia’s wealther regions – something that was partially voted on back in May of this year, although the result was not recognised a national level.

So will it be different this time around?  Will the people get to chose more autonomy for their regions, as long as they agree to an indefinite number of terms for the President?

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