Finding Affordable Health Insurance in Germany to Work, Study, and Live

Germany boasts a highly praised and well rounded health insurance system that is essentially comprised of three different parts. There is the Public Health Insurance System (GKV), the Private (PKV) and the Expat Health Insurance System. To qualify for either of the three options, you have to meet certain requirements. These can be anything from your visa status,  your job situation, as well as the amount of money you earn.

Regardless, health insurance is absolutely mandatory for all residents of Germany. 

Figuring out your best option is an important task! We’ve put together an article highlighting some of the best insurance options within Germany.

Public Health Insurance

If you are a regular employee earning under €62,550 per year, a student under the age of 30, or an EU citizen that is a freelancer/self-employed then we strongly recommend TK as your health insurance provider.

TK is regularly awarded as the No. 1 healthcare provider in Germany and it is clear why.

A quick, online sign-up process can get you insured within two days. All service and documentation is performed completely in English. And most importantly, it meets all the requirements for a Work Visa, EU Blue Card and the Student Visa.

Students benefit from a reduced price and can expect to pay roughly around €105 euros per month depending on their age. Employees can expect the standard 14.6% of their salary, with half paid by the employer.

Use our sign-up link and get insured today!

For those looking for an alternative, check out Barmers as an equally high-quality provider in Public Health Insurance.

Private Health Insurance

For employees earning a high salary and for freelancers failing to qualify for Public Health Insurance, Private Health Insurance is also a great option to consider.

Ottonova doubles as a private health insurance provider, meeting all the requirements for a Freenlance Visa and providing full support in English 24/7.

Feather’s also has a brokerage service where they play matchmaker with you and a trusted Private Health provider.

In both cases, the cost will be dependent on your overall risk profile in respect to your health. Factors such as how old you are or any existing health conditions.

Expat Health Insurance

Those just recently moved to Germany as a Job Seeker, a Working-Holidayer, Non-EU Citizens who are freelancers/self-employed, MiniJob employees, and German-Language school students do not qualify for the Public Health Insurance system. This leaves Expat Health Insurance as the best option.

Feather’s is an extremely affordable option that meets all visa requirements while providing a high standard of medical care. Everything is also done in English, making it the perfect choice! The monthly fee comes out to just about €70 a month.

Other up-to-standard options to consider are Ottonova and Foyers.

Need Help?

Choosing a suitable insurance provider in Germany is an important choice! It can be overwhelming at times, so feel free to contact us with any questions or consultation needed.

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Berlin’s most desirable neighborhoods to live in

Ah, to live in Berlin. The capital of Germany is a bustling metropolis welcoming any and all who dare to call her home. Known for an open mentality, a top-notch nightlife scene, and home to a thriving start-up atmosphere, Berlin is an enticing choice to settle down in.

One of the key steps in doing so? Finding a place to live. The housing shortage in Berlin combined with the intricacies of German bureaucracy can make house hunting a headache. In an attempt to alleviate some of the stress, GLOBALS Homes features some of the best apartments in the city.

Choosing just where to live in Berlin is an important choice! The charm of Berlin is the different worlds that can be found depending on the neighborhood you happen to be in. Read on as we highlight three of Berlin’s most desirable neighborhoods – and the apartments that will let you call them home!

Lichtenberg

Just East of Mitte lies the quiet district of Lichtenberg. At first glance it can seem far removed from the vibrant and historic center of Berlin but don’t let that fool you!

In just 15 minutes you can arrive at Alexanderplatz. Strolling through this quiet suburb, its free from the broken glass and hipsters that crowd Kreuzberg and Neukölln’s busy streets.

Within 20 minutes from the Lichtenburg S+U station you can travel back in time and visit the historic former Stasi Headquarters, or travel to Vietnam and step inside the Dong Xuan Center, an Asian market with over 150 stalls. You can also visit one of East Berlin’s most famous attractions, Tierpark, a large zoo where animals have free roam and gives residents an amazing green space in the center of the district. Lichtenberg is a trending gem in Berlin, get here fast!

Mitte

Mitte means “center” or “middle” in German and you can bet that if you live in Mitte you can reach anywhere in Berlin’s city limits very easily. Not only are you well connected with transit, but the multiple bars, restaurants and cafes are not just there for the tourists.

Grab a craft beer around Torstrasse, visit the Berlin Wall Memorial or catch a show at Babylon Berlin or the Volksbühne and discover that thriving Mitte is the heartbeat of the city and one of the best districts to live in.

Schöneberg

Discover all the colours of Berlin within one district. Famous since the 1920s for its vibrant LGBTQ+ scene, Schöneberg really has something for everyone.

You can browse the latest trends at the famous KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens), one of the largest department stores in Europe. For nature lovers there is the protected biological park Schöneberger Südgelände, a nature reclaimed WWII rail yard and just in the district limits is Templehofer Field, the airport-turned-public-park, where you can catch the best sunsets in the city.

The 30 Best Cities to Live in for Expats 2020

International life is becoming a norm nowadays as more and more people are moving abroad each year. In a survey put together by InterNations, some 20.000 expats ranked which cities in 2020 are the best for relocation. 

Aspects considered include general features of life in a new city, such as living expenses, medical costs, the working conditions as well as the ease at which one makes new acquaintances with locals.
Barcelona notably has been ranked 7th by the 20,000 expats. If you’re thinking of relocating there, know that we have a Club GLOBALS community waiting to connect with you there, as well as our very own Barcelona guide to help you get familiar with, we believe, one of the most beautiful and artistic cities of Europe.

So, all the all the more reason to join our community today!

 

Discover which cities are best ranked:

30. Brussels, Belgium

29. Melbourne, Australia

28. Muscat, Oman

27. Miami, Florida, US

26. Tokyo, Japan

25. Panamá city, Panamá

24. Tallinn, Estonia

23. Vienna, Austria

22. Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

21. Manama, Bahrain

20. Bangkok, Thailand

19. Calgary, Canada

18. Budapest, Hungary

17. Madrid, Spain

16. Sydney, Australia

15. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

14. Mexico City, Mexico

13. Prague, Czechia

12. Doha, Qatar

11. Aachen, Germany

10. Basel, Switzerland

9. The Hague, Netherlands

8. Zug, Switzerland

7. Barcelona, Spain

6. Lisbon, Portugal

5. Montréal, Canada

4. Singapore

3. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1. Taipei, Taiwan

Source: Insider

Thanks for your interest for today’s event Networking like a Pro!!

We’re sold out!

Stay tuned for the next events

Are you ready to expand your knowledge on networking?

Club GLOBALS represents the event “Networking like a Pro” on 29 April at 5.30 pm in The Place Berlin.

Let‘s join if you want to learn the most recent and important tips of networking to make your business and social life better!

Agenda
5:00 Welcome and Tour
5:15 Intro Mario Paladini
5:20 Networking like a Pro, Tips and Tricks
5:50 Working in Startups
6:00 Intro to GLOBALS
6:30 Networking at the Bar

Mario Paladini – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariopaladini/

Founder and CEO, GLOBALS: ventures making international life easy: AiRelo – Artificial Intelligence Relocation – city registration assistant chatbot and more (Member of the Facebook Accelerator and McKinsey Startup Scholarship). Club GLOBALS community marketplace, connecting and guiding global minds. GLOBALS.tv videos on innovation, entrepreneurship and international life. Ambassador of the World Innovations Forum.  Mentor, speaker and blogger.

Former Ambassador of the world’s largest expat network in Berlin. Co-Founded first’s English-German Rotary eClub. Advisor at social network strategy committee of Rotary International. Winner of Oracle Innovation award, Pitch Marathon and Bistream Venture Summit. He speaks English, thinks German and feels Spanish.

 

Club GLOBALS cordially invites you to our next gathering in Los Angeles.

We would like to welcome you to join us to get to know each other and network with internationally-minded people.

PROGRAM:

6.00 p.m : Arrive

6.45 p.m. : Welcome & Intro

7.00 p.m. : Networking

8.00 p.m. : The End

CONNECTING  Entrepreneurs with Business Partners – B2B Matchmaking

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER From Senior High-Level International Speakers

ENJOY an evening with like-minded guests

Join as a partner

World’s Most Interesting and Strange Cities

Centralia, Pennsylvania

A fire that began in 1962 never extinguished for 50 years. Many people migrated to other cities and countries in 1980.

Colma, California

The city with the most dead population. There are about 2 million tombs and more than one religious tomb. There are also animals in the cemetery.

Manshiet Nasser, Egypt

This city collects all of Cairo’s garbage. We all know that 6000 people in the city and they earn money from this garbage.

Pompeii, Italy

The destruction of the city of Pompei according to scientists is a natural disaster. Some also think prostitution, gambling, quarrels, rape of children, and various immorality in the city are the cause of the catastrophe.

Procida, Italy

The Italian island of Procida is unique. It is one of the oldest holiday destinations in the world. The main symbol of the miniature islets is the set of beautiful houses of all shades of the rainbow. This view of the island, which can be seen on postcards and souvenirs, unlike the water surface and the fascinating blue sky, the bright houses are marvelous.

Sheffield, Australia

In the 1980s, people wanted to establish a tourist federation in order to ensure the coming of tourists. They did this by drawing pictures on most of the walls in the city. Since 2003, a regular wall painting festival has been organized in the city. Although the population is less than 1000, 200 – 250 thousand tourists come to this festival every year. Art has been given importance in the city.

Slab City, California

In the city of Salton, which is in the southern part of the state of California, there is no law in the city that was established after World War II. If you’re on your way to the city, you’ll understand the huge structure of Salvation Mountain made by the American visual artist Leonardo Knight. Another interesting fact is that there is no clean water network.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

The Indians are very proud of their traditions. In Morocco, at the foot of the Reef Mountains, a magnificent city of Chefchaouen. The walls are traditionally painted in blue colors. People escaped the Spanish Inquisition and set up a small settlement in the mountains. Despite the fact that the first tenants had already abandoned their ancient stone houses, the tradition of painting the walls with blue colors remained.

Seven Giants Cliffs Siberia, Russia

The Northern Urals is located in the middle of Siberia. According to legend, these rockets were the real giant soldiers who froze to death while running away. The height of the rocks is 30-40 meters.

Agenda:
• Dubai SME representative opening
• Presentation and demo of companies on stage
• Exhibition
• Networking and multiplication
• Food and drinks

We are looking for our Dubai Ambassador, please contact us for recommendations.

5 Must have gadgets for Expats !

1. Wheeled backpack

We all know the struggles with luggage woes, bumping into each seat, or person, than the handle breaks or you wrist hurts because you have to carry the heavy luggage everywhere.

Did you ever heard of the Wheeled Backpacks and or Rolling Backpacks. These backpacks are here to solve all the luggage woes! The wheels are invaluable and almost always usable. When you don’t want to carry your backpack you can easily roll it down the streets. And if you have to walk on stairs or on sand you just grab your bag, adjust the straps, put it on your back and you are ready to go!

Not only is the backpack easy to use, it is also good for your health. If you travel, the most important thing is that you feel comfortable. With this backpack you can switch between rolling the backpack or putting it in your back, so less back problems.

When you travel with a backpack you’re usually only able to access your gear from the top or bottom. Finding what you’re looking for is downright painful and typically results in clothes everywhere. Rolling backpacks load like a duffle bag but still on your back!

At least if you need to use a four-wheel bag as a two-wheel, you simply tilt it forward and pull it that way. you have a double usage instead of being limited to one. Awesome!

2. Solar phone charger

We all have phones, laptops, camera’s etc. And we all once have had the struggle that we had no charger or electricity and the battery was about to die. That’s the worst thing that can happen !

Solar phone chargers can help you in situations like this. The Solar phone charger
makes sure that you can recharge your equipment, without needing electricity. Freedom of movement and environmental friendliness are the two biggest reasons to own a solar battery charger.

The charger works only on sunlight. You can find the sun pretty much anywhere on Earth during the daytime. So, if you find yourself lost in the woods with a dead cell phone, you need only the sun’s rays to get it up and running again.

You can even buy a waterproof and dustproof solar phone charger and the size of these things are really compact and they weight between the 280 to 850 g. You can easily hook the solar charger to a backpack, or sit in one hand. It should be able to recharge its battery even when your phone isn’t connected. That way,

you can take advantage of a sunny day, and recharge your phone later that night when it’s actually running low on battery. A must have right!           

 

3. Track stick

A Track stick is a satellite route calculator and tracker, it is a small USB device that you can put in your car, your bike or even just carry it around while walking and it will store data of your routes via satellite and navigate the streets for you via Google Maps.

As an expat getting to know your new host country, it’s not easy to find the best routes in the city and you might find yourself a bit lost within a car with a faulty navigation system. While your smartphone can show you a map of where you are, Track stick can assist you by showing you where you came from and the best route to go to where you’re going. Not all countries and cities have local apps that can guide you with city navigation, so having a gadget like this that can calculate your routes anywhere in the world through satellite navigation can be really useful. never get lost again !

4. E-reader

 For the ones who love to read books, a E-reader is highly recommended.  The E-reader is just around 200 g. It’s compact and thin. So you can take it everywhere with you and read.

You can get a lot of free books or for a low price. Free classics are easy to find or you can borrow books from your local library ect.

Also don’t Give Up Highlighting or Note-taking in your books. On the E-reader you can still highlight sentences or write notes in it, because you went digital.

The E-reader can not hurt your eyes, because there are brightness settings that go all the way down for daytime reading, and there is a glare-free screen. Also it uses less energy than a tablet.

At last but not least. Some people like to switch between books and read them. On the E-reader that is possible as well. You will not only have all your books with you but the weight you carry is less, than if you would take all your books with you.

5. Multi-tool

 The name speaks for it self. Be always prepared !

Everyone want a highly functional multi-tool that is readily available and offers a wide variety of carry options for simple and effective solutions to everyday problems.Having a multi-tool is far beyond handy. It has adaptability, it’s convenience and it is efficient.

You might not always need a ruler, a hex driver, a bottle opener, a pry bar, or whatever other functions your multi-tool has to offer. But you’ll be glad that they were included when you do.They are in mobile format and weighs almost nothing. Especially if you travel or you are an expat you want one, because you don’t want to take a big ruler, bottle opener ect. with you.

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5 Little Surprises You Face As An Expat

 

There are some wonderful things about being an expat, either permanently or if you’re just taking up residence somewhere new for a short time. You get a fresh start in a new place where you can learn a new culture, broaden your horizons, and ultimately better yourself in numerous ways. However, it’s also not a negative to acknowledge that being an expat can also be a little strange, at least at first. Of course you’ll be getting used to a new place, a new population, and possibly a different language. But there are also some little things you might not expect that can be jarring as you go about day-to-day life.

A few of those things might tend to be as follows….

1. Tipping Customs

Depending on where you come from, you probably have a very entrenched idea, one way or the other, about tipping for service. In some cultures, tipping is viewed not just as a polite gesture of appreciation, but as a necessary contribution. In the U.S. for instance, service workers typically make very low wages with the expectation being that a bulk of their income will come through tips. Many Americans will tip 20% or more of a bill habitually, and anything below 15% or so is considered something of a slight. In many other countries however, this built-in necessity is non-existent, and tipping is essentially strange (though not necessarily frowned upon). You can get a general idea through a map of tipping customs so that you know what to expect, but either way it can be a little bit jarring getting use to a new way of handling this.

2. Timing

It’s harder to get a clear picture of what to expect from a timing perspective in advance. But speaking broadly, different cultures have different standards and expectations as far as what it means to be “on time.” In some respects, people in cultures known for having busy or stressful lifestyles are sometimes associated with being more timely, and with taking more offense over lateness. In some more relaxed cultures though, it can be perfectly acceptable to show up well after you were “supposed to.” Naturally this can take some getting used to, one way or the other.

3. Legal Recreation

This doesn’t of course mean that recreation in general is legal – rather that it can be surprising to see what exactly is legal in different places. For instance, the legal drinking age can still vary quite a bit from one place to the next. The same can be true with recreational usage of cannabis. And casino activity is another example of something that can be quite different from place to place. The UK produces a lot of sites that are now accessible in much of the world where online gambling is legal, but some countries still prohibit it. And live casinos, too, are legal in some countries and not in others. Basically, you never know until you narrow down a destination what all people might be allowed or inclined to do for fun there.

4. Exchange Rates

Differences in currency value and the need to exchange money certainly won’t come as surprises to the average traveler. Indeed, this is usually one of the main things people specifically prepare for when planning big trips. However, what can be somewhat surprising, in its own way, is how exchange rates affect you throughout a trip. That is to say, you may be prepared to exchange money early on, and you probably have a general idea of how far your money is going to take you in a foreign country. But even this kind of overarching understanding doesn’t really prepare you for day-to-day costs, and adjusting to how much something like a meal will or won’t eat into your budget.

5. A Different Pace Of Living

This can go somewhat hand-in-hand with the idea of what it means to be on time in a given place. More broadly though, an interesting piece on some of the surprises of moving abroad pointed out that a survey found a number of expats saying they appreciated a slower pace of living. We won’t generalize that way here, in that someone moving from, say, Spain to the United States, might experience the exact opposite. However, a different pace of living can certainly be a jolt to your senses when you move or spend extended time abroad. Different places simply move at different speeds, and often this is one of the main adjustments you’ll have to make.