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Is Ottonova expat insurance worth it?
My main problems are the public insurance I have (TK) is that it is too expensive for what I'm getting,… I've been living in Berlin for about a year now and am looking into alternatives for insurance.
My main problems are the public insurance I have (TK) is that it is too expensive for what I'm getting, at least my experience has been really bad, with months of waiting time for a 5 minute appointment with a practitioner who seems to just be interested in getting me out as fast as possible. Maybe it's just Berlin, but it's not a good experience.
Private insurance sounds like a good way to get better service, faster, and cheaper, since I rarely need medical attention .
I'm a non EU with a blue card and qualified for Ottonova's Expat plan for €150/month. This plan would require me to pay 10% deductible on visits and procedures, but not sure how much those usually are.
On paper it sounds too good, so I'm skeptic and trying to understand if it's worth it or a bad service.
Does anyone have any experience with Ottonova? Are they a good provider? Are the deductibles high for normal visits? Any information helps.
I am not planning to stay in Germany forever, btw, plan is for maybe 5 more years. Also not planning on starting a family. So my aim is to get the same or better healthcare services for less money on the short term.
ngl I looked into ottonova when I was in your shoes and the reimbursement thing put me off. having to front cash for everything then chase them for weeks is a pain, especially if you need something like a quick bluttest or a specialist who charges 100€ upfront. plus their "network" is mostly in bigger cities, so if you ever travel outside Berlin for work or whatever, good luck finding a doc that takes them.
for 5 years and no big plans, I'd prob just switch to a cheaper public option like hkk or techniker's basistarif if
i had ottonova for a year and switched back to tk tbh. the 10% deductible adds up fast if you actually need anything beyond a basic checkup. one specialist visit near alexanderplatz cost me like 40€ out of pocket after the deductible, and that was just for a derm referral. plus you have to pay everything upfront and wait for reimbursement, which is annoying when deutsche apotheke already charges 20€ for a simple prescription.
the service was decent for booking appointments, sure, but the network isn't as wide as they pitch. some docs near me in prenzlauer berg didn't even accept ottonova because they're not registered with the private system properly. if you're healthy and rarely go, you might save short-term, but the moment you need a specialist or an mrt at charité, that 150€ plus deductible won't feel cheap.
tk is frustrating with wait times, i get it, but at least you're covered for everything without surprises. maybe try switching to a different public insurer like aok or barmer, they sometimes have faster terminvergabe in berlin. for 5 years, the risk of one bigger bill wiping out your savings isn't worth the monthly savings imo.
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.
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