Germany has a bug
A bug I wished I could fix
Today I woke up very early, and I have lain on the bed for more than a hour trying to fall asleep again.
I could not sleep because my brain started to work fast, processing information, thinking again and again about this problem I had and I have been unable to fix till now.
I could not fix it because it is not a bug of the current implementation, it is not even about me personally dealing with the country system. It’s more a design flaw.
It’s more a design flaw
Germany is a strong country, and as European citizens we admire it from many different points of view. After one year and a half I am also sure that many non-EU citizens have the same impression, and it’s even stronger than ours.
We all think about Germany as a country with a strong welfare, where no matter where you are from, you will feel welcomed and protected.
Germany as a country with a strong welfare
Yes, I definitely felt welcomed when I moved to Germany in September 2015. And this feeling was so strong which I did my best to persuade another Italian citizen like me -Elvia is her name- to move to the same country, because I was sure it was definitely a good place to try to build something together.
She came to Germany very motivated to restart from scratch, learn a new language, find a job or maybe do freelancing, basically reinventing herself.
She came to Germany very motivated to restart from scratch
One of the first night we were together in our small flat in Berlin Moabit, we realized that something was wrong with her and we should also concentrate on an unexpected new topic: her health needed to be taken care.
I called the ambulance that night, but we decided to wait for the doctor on call and skip the proposed trip to the hospital.
The doctor came after few hours and we gave her Elvia’s Italian health insurance card. That was the first alert we had about the fact that Europe is still very far to work as a whole ecosystem and we needed to do something more, soon. We basically needed a German insurance for her.
We basically needed a German insurance for her
No problem, I thought. I have a job, a good one, and of course I have a German health insurance. And she’ll have one too.
The language barrier was a problem, but my colleagues were happy to help me and give me some advice. So I got a contact of a person working for the same insurance I had, and I asked for information. The answer I received was poor and evasive, but I felt it was only bad luck.
I felt it was only bad luck
So I looked for another English speaker from the same insurance. No chance again.
Meantime Elvia was going back and forth to the local doctor place nearby. She did some blood exams. They also sent her to a specialist, and I had to pay this praxis in private.
Everybody kept telling me the same thing: she needed a German health insurance. I knew it and I was doing my best to achieve this goal.
It was also the beginning of something new for me. I felt I was falling out of love with Germany.
I was falling out of love with Germany
In Italy every newborn has an health insurance, the public one. From the first breath to the last one. If you move to Italy with the right to live there, you’ll have one as well. It’s a right, before anyone else.
It’s true that in some areas of Italy the health system is far from being perfect, but -damn- nobody will ask you if you have an insurance or not.
Back to the German bug. From every single person I asked for, I obtained more or less the very same answer: she needs a job or you have to get married.
she needs a job or you have to get married
Yes, they have some foolish rules: Germany forces you to register as a person living in its border, what they call Anmeldung, for example, and you need this registration to look for a job.
Luckily, this was never a problem for us, since we live together, but it is a big problem for many others. Basically nobody will offer you a work contract without being registered, and no landlord will let you rent his flat without a job.
I came to Germany with a signed contract in my pocket, as many other software developers moving to this wealthy country, and I was definitely a privileged person. But it’s not the case for a lot of people, and I met an Italian guy who was begging for food and sleeping wherever he could, only because he run out of the money he had while he was looking for a real accommodation to get a contract as pizzaiolo, his job.
Another foolish rule is the one which made me write this blog-post. You basically need a job to deserve aid support.
You basically need a job to deserve aid support.
They built a system based on the illusory opportunity to choose between public and private health insurances, but it’s a lie.
It’s a lie, because you need to have a job to get a public insurance, and finding a job if you are ill it’s not easy, sometimes not even possible.
So what about the private ones? They claim they are better, particularly for young people, because “with the public ones you are paying for all the unemployeds and refugees”.
with the public ones you are paying for all the unemployeds and refugees
That’s the reason why we pay taxes. It’s call equality and it’s not a shame, it’s the foundation of every democratic country.
So, they claim they are the right choice for you and your partner, which they can insure under your name even if you are not married, but after few minutes of chatting, you will be sent back to the reality, and they will ask if both of you are in good health. So, if this is not the case and you take some pills, or you need some medical assistance, your email messages won’t receive any further replies. You have just been blacklisted, because they only bet on the best horses.
they only bet on the best horses.
Summarizing:
- we could not have a public one ’cause they only insure people with a job or their spouse;
For same sex couples, since they cannot get married, civil unions are enough to be insured.
- we could not have a private one because we are not appealing enough for these companies;
We demanded to be insured only because we needed aid support, basically. And that’s something bad for them, since they only insure you for the problems you’ll have in the future, but when you subscribe the contract you have to be a kind of Varenne.
- we could not even pay for having her being insured, so the only chance we have is getting married.
I thought we were the conservative country par excellence, but I was wrong: Germany is as conservative as Italy.
I know, we just have to get married and we will fix this problem. We’ll also have some more money as tax cut, because Frau Merkel would love to see us with a wedding band and she will provide us with all the support we need to make some babies and bring them to the kita.
I am not against marriage and I have already been married once, and that’s the reason why I would think twice to do it again.
I am only against a system which link your health to your job, “produci, consuma, crepa” was the chorus of an Italian punk rock song from mid 80’s. In English it would sound like “produce, consume, die”, and it’s definitely what I felt when I discovered this situation and I explained that to my unaware German colleagues.
“produce, consume, die”
I do not know what we will do next, but I know I moved from Italy with a need which I could not fully satisfy in Germany: paying taxes in a country where equality is not only a word between many others on a piece of paper we call Constitution, but it’s imprinted in the DNA of the nation, First-class citizen of the countrywide system.
First-class citizen of the countrywide system
I’d love to read your thoughts. Thanks!
