(PFLEGEVERSICHERUNG)
21 May 2007
German Ministry of Health Web Site
Click here to view English Language Document
In accordance with German Law...." All residents of Germany must have Long Term Care Insurance..."
German Resident is anyone who is registered as resident and has a residence permit - i.e. not to be confused with Citizen (National)
The Bundesministerium fuer Gesundheit (BMG) has stated that Long Term Care Insurance (Pflegeversicherung) is NOT a commercial insurance subject to EU Insurance Directives,
which are invariably multilateral througout the EU, but it is a Social Welfare provision, in accordance with EU Directives but subject also to unilateral National Law.
For more information on the implications of this please contact Spectrum Internaitonal.
For persons insured under
the Statutory insurance schemes, the
Benefits of the Long Term Care assurance are only available after
5 years contributions have been made - (with effect from 1 July 2008 this is reduced to 2 years)- but there is no waiting
time for privately insured. This would therefore imply that expatriates
in statutory schemes, who may be resident for less than 5 years (2 years from 1 July 2008),
would be obliged to contribute but could not receive benefits.
It is now confirmed that by amendment to the origianl Act, benefits may now be exported
within the EU. That is anyone who has made the necessary 5 years (2 years from 1 July 2008)
contributions and returns, or moves to another EU Member State
may still be able to receive the benefits. It is understood further
however that the standards of care which would generate these
benefits, must be comparable, or better, than the German standards. The above applies to ALL nationalities living in any EU Member State and moving to another EU Member State. Anyone returning or moving to a non-EU
Member State would NOT be able to export the benefits. Long Term Care Insurance
is an integral part of all German Statutory and German Private Health insurance, but see the paragraph below for the implications in respect of International Health Insurance INTERNATIONAL
HEALTH INSURANCE The very nature of international
insurance, i.e. the availability of worldwide cover, does not
lend itself to provision of Long Term Care insurance underwriting.
In particular the German Long Term Care, although provided by
German Insurance companies, diverts most of the contribution into
a single fund controlled by the Federal authorities in respect
of allocation of benefits. This thus means that international
insurances cannot comply with the requirements of the Germany Law. Hence the current anomalous situation whereby
many thousands of expatriates currently have international insurance
but not Long Term Care insurance. The only way to obtain Long
Term Care insurance therefore would appear to be by having
German Statutory or German Private insurance......... HOWEVER........ A La Carte International
Healthcare are underwritten by Allianz Worlwide and have thus
been able to negotiate an arrangement with Allianz Deutschland
to enable access to their Long Term Care Insurance (Pflegeversicherung).
This is now provided exclusively by Spectrum International
and is only available with A La Carte Health Insurance plans. Please contact us for more
details spectrumint@aol.com Telephone Germany: 02432-80-365
----Telephone International: 0049-2432-80-365