Different answers to a single question

I know I have been tagged, and I will do that 7x7 scheme in the nearest future. Right now I need to vent though.

Work has been extremely busy lately. I still have samples to run, data to analyse, reports to do, etc. for 5-6 of the 8 different projects that I’m involved in. Also, I have to take care of all the paper work that has to do with my future Ph.D-employment. One of the things that need to be clarified in connection with this is the health insurance issue. I actually thought that would be easily overcome, but apparently I was wrong!

I was told by my German supervisor-to-be that his personnel department had told him that I need to get a German health insurance, so he advised me to look into that. I thought that I would be able to do with either a small expansion of my current general insurance, or by the coverage offered by the Danish Health Insurance, and if that was the case I saw no need to get involved with a German insurance company. So I started out searching the web-pages of my general insurance company for more information on insurance questions when travelling and working abroad. I talked to the relevant department and was told that of course I could underwrite an additional “youth travelling insurance” to cover all cost of medical assistance and transportation, but I should also consider the possibilities of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which I could get from the municipality of Odense.

Thus, I contacted the relevant department of the municipality of Odense, and after having my call diverted a couple of times, I finally got hold of someone who knew about this EHIC. She told me that I would need to contact the Danish Health Insurance Department (DHID) as I might have to fill out a form before I could get the card. I got the number for DHID, and got to talk to a very nice guy, who informed me that since my working destination would be Germany, the EHIC would not do, I would indeed have to get a German health insurance. Great! At least he recommended a German health insurance company to me, and told me to , and request a specific form. I looked up the recommended insurance company on the Internet. Their webpage was rather confusing, and only in German (I do know German, but it has just been so many years since I have used it that it takes a longer time for me to scan information when only provided in German). I couldn’t really find what I was looking for, so I decided that I might as well contact them. I found the contact information, hoping that it would hold an e-mail address, so that I could just write a mail. There was indeed a link for e-mail contact, however it turned out to be a specific e-mail form where you had to fill in a bunch of information and only had very little room to actually write your question. The funny thing was that among the required information were address, postal code, and area. I just keyed in my Danish ones, but those were not accepted. The major problem seemed to be the postal code. Danish postal codes are 4-digits, whereas German ones are 5-digits, so of course this form wouldn’t accept my Danish postal code! I ended up keying in my Danish address, the German postal code for my workplace-to-be, and just “Denmark” as the area. Finally it was accepted, and I was informed that my request would be answered within 24 hours.

This afternoon I received the answer from the German health insurance company:

“Dear Mrs. Rosenqvist,

thanks that you`re intrested in a AOK insurance.

If you`ll work in germany, you need the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). You`ll get this Card at your Helth Insurance Company in Denmark.

This Card is all you need to go to the doktor in Germany.

If there are any questions, please call me or send a mail.”

Now, I have spoken to a lot of different people the last couple of days, and I still cannot get a straight answer! According to the German health insurance company I do not need other than the EHIC! As soon as I had read this message, I called the DHID, but of course their opening hours had ended for the day, so I will have to wait until tomorrow.

Who should I trust, when they keep giving me different answers??!!!

As a more happy side note, Fido was back for a sleep-over this past weekend, and despite the fact that she had her dog basket along with her to sleep in, this time she preferred to sleep in the soft blankets on our couch :-)

Sweet isn't she? :-)