When planning to study abroad, learn a trade, or settle abroad, one of the important issues is health care and medical treatment in the host country.

Frequently asked questions are:

• What happens if I get sick?
• How is health care and medical treatment?
• How should I prepare and react to getting sick and needing medical help?
• How much does medical examination and treatment cost?
• Quality of medical services?

Surely for many people who want to settle in Germany, one of the core factors that makes us choose the Federal Republic of Germany is because Germany has a leading health care system, medicine, and excellent social security policies.

But how exactly is it amazing and advanced? Let’s join expert My Career as a patient!

Health care system in Germany

In Germany, when it comes to medical examination and treatment facilities and health care services, there are hierarchical concepts: Praxis, Krankenhaus, Klinikum

Practice

As a form of private practice, a small clinic is usually privately owned and serves the residents of the surrounding area.

This is the most common type of medical examination and treatment facility that we go to most often. This is a bit different from medical examination and treatment in Vietnam, where whenever we are sick, we tend to go to large hospitals and only go to private clinics if we have a minor cold or fever.

When in Germany, people will go to private clinics and will usually have familiar doctors (Hausarzt) visit and monitor their health periodically and continuously for many years.

This doctor will be the first line to hold our medical records, can directly give instructions and advice to help us stay healthy, as well as refer us to specialized hospitals when needed.

Hausarzt doctors are usually general practitioners or multi-specialists, have many years of experience in the profession and are very friendly with patients. The doctor that the author examined during nearly 10 years of studying and working in Germany is a doctor nearly 60 years old who really likes Vietnam.

Despite his old age, he still cycles from home to the clinic 20 km away every day and only goes to work by bicycle all year round, regardless of rain or snow. He often tells the story of how he studied to be a doctor for a total of more than 20 years, and when he was able to get a license to practice and open his own clinic, which the author often visits, he was already over 50 years old.

If we need to see a doctor for specific health problems or illnesses such as dental treatment, we will go to Praxis, a dental clinic, to see a dentist (Zahnarzt).

If women go to see a gynecologist, they can go to a gynecological Praxis and see a gynecologist (Frauenarzt).

At Praxis there are even a number of small emergency rooms (Notfall) for nearby emergencies related to accidents, high fevers, flus late at night or on holidays when Hausarzt’s private clinics are closed.

Unless we are seriously ill, need emergency care for a serious accident, need urgent specialized treatment, or need specialized treatment that requires high-level technical expertise, difficult surgery, or a long hospital stay, we only need to go to Krankenhaus – a hospital-level medical facility.

hospital

Is a hospital that can examine and treat diseases requiring specialized doctors, specialized treatment, and specializes in treating certain types of specialized medical conditions. 

For example: mental hospital, heart hospital, children’s hospital? or general hospital, local hospital?

Can we go to Krankenhaus under the direction of our family doctor (Hausarzt) or doctors from Praxis clinics to examine and treat diseases that require long-term treatment, or difficult surgery, or in cases that require emergency treatment such as serious injuries or accidents?

To grasp the patient’s medical information and condition, doctors at Krankenhaus will often contact the Hausarzt we have visited to get medical records, grasp medical history, information about allergies, constitution, underlying diseases? to be able to have a suitable treatment plan.

Without information from Hausarzt, it would be difficult for doctors at Krankenhaus to examine and treat patients effectively and accurately.

These hospitals are only found in densely populated areas of city size or larger. Very few hospitals are located in villages or hamlets with few inhabitants. Large cities, state capitals, especially cities with major universities, have more hospitals and may also have Klinikums.

Clinic

Large-scale hospitals are usually a combination of Kliniks? specialized hospitals form a large general hospital complex, which can be combined with medical universities to research and treat new diseases and treatment methods. It can be understood as equivalent to a central hospital in Vietnam.

With the characteristics of a large-scale hospital, at the final level, Klinikum plays a role in treating especially serious and dangerous cases, often collaborating with universities to research new drugs, new treatment methods, and new diseases. Working at Klinikum is very good, but being a guest at Klinikum is probably something few people want.

See also: Health care system in Germany

Cost of health check in Germany

As a country famous for its world-leading social security policies, it is also the country with the largest number of insurance types in the world.

Most people in Germany enjoy health care policies with cost support from the private insurance system, public insurance and only have to pay for value-added services or VIP services, the main treatment and medication costs are covered by insurance.

Note: As an international student, vocational school student, or employee, civil servant, worker, engineer working in Germany, paying health insurance is MANDATORY , this is a core requirement if you want to extend your visa and other policy paperwork. Therefore, we must buy/pay for health insurance, accident insurance and own an insurance card when living, studying, and working in the Federal Republic of Germany.

For health insurance and accident insurance, we can buy from private insurance companies or state insurance companies according to the policy.

If you are an international student, you will be covered by the German state insurance policy, or you can purchase private insurance on your own. When you sign an official employment contract with a company, you are required to have health insurance and accident insurance, which can also be used for your family members (spouse/children).

International students can rest assured that paying this insurance is really valuable, it is a shield to protect you from unexpected risks, especially when you are having health problems.

Note: Even with health insurance, each time we go for a medical examination in Germany we still have to pay a very small fee created to prevent people from arbitrarily making doctor’s appointments without any serious illness, overloading the medical system and causing damage to the insurance fund.

This fee is about 10 EUR for three months of visits to Praxis (that is, within three months, no matter how many times you go to Hausarzt, you only pay 10 EUR for the first visit and the following visits are free, after three months you pay 10 EUR for the first visit), as well as 10 EUR for each emergency visit and it is not included with the 10 EUR for the private clinic visit mentioned above.

Note the fees excluded by insurance when having a medical examination in Germany

If we are prescribed medication by a doctor, the cost of the medication will be fully covered by insurance for the specific medications we are experiencing, as well as the necessary tests to quantify the illness we are suffering from. However, for additional medications or those we request, for example pain relievers, better quality medications with fewer allergies or side effects than the medication originally prescribed by the doctor, we must pay for these medications ourselves.

The same thing happens if we go to Krankenhaus for treatment, for example, we need to have an appendectomy. The entire cost of the surgery and antibiotics will be free, and anesthesia will be covered by insurance. However, painkillers for the following days of recovery, as well as the cost of hospitalization, hospital living expenses, and private nursing service fees? If we order them, we have to pay for them ourselves. Of course, with these added value costs, we should choose not to use them so as not to have to pay.

What to do when having a health check in Germany

For mild cases

When we need medical assistance, if it is not a serious case or accident, the first thing we should remember is the familiar Praxis, near home, or the Notfallpraxis if an emergency is needed.

For example, when the author has a cold, the author will call the familiar Praxis clinic near his home and make an appointment (Termin).

When the appointment comes, the author just needs to come to the clinic on time and present his health condition to the Hausarzt. The Hausarzt will perform the examination, may directly prescribe medication, instruct the nurse to give injections or vaccines on the spot, give advice on how to stay healthy and treat at home until the illness is cured.

For severe cases

If we are seriously ill or the doctor feels that further examination or testing is needed, the doctor will refer us for a higher level examination or test, and then the clinic nurse will directly make an appointment for us.

For emergency

In case of emergency, we can call the emergency doctor (Notarzt) or go to the emergency clinic to request emergency. Without medical records, the examination will be more difficult, if we only need first aid for minor accidents, it will be simpler.

However, the author himself does not have many good experiences with emergency care.

Once, the author had food poisoning, vomited green and yellow bile, could not leave the house and had to call the emergency doctor, but had to wait nearly 2 hours for the doctor to arrive, by which time the author had vomited everything he could and the symptoms had subsided.

Another time, the author went to the emergency room on a snowy Sunday night at the end of the year because of a cold. However, despite the name of the emergency room, the author had to wait 3 hours with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius for his turn because it was a bit crowded and the author did not have an accident that required emergency first aid. When it was his turn to be examined, the fever had passed, the author was well again, and finally received an injection in the buttock, a free blood test, had to pay 10 EUR and then go home.

Hopefully, the experiences of health check-ups in Germany from My Career staff will help you when you are worried about this issue.

See more: Everything about buying medicine in Germany

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