Health Insurance for new arrival in Berlin

•  Is long term ex-pat insurance sufficient to satisfy the requirement of mandatory health insurance?

No!

Every resident in Germany, almost without any exception, is legally required to have German health insurance.

Thus you must join a German one, if you stay longer than a short visit (three months, as far as I know) and have no income (or immediately if you receive a salary).

Since you were in the private scheme in your home country, you must join the private one here. Joining them at your advanced age will cost you dearly!

If your home country insurance fulfills the German requirements (which is possible within the EU), then there might be a chance that they can cover you here, too. Ask them!

But certainly no expat insurance is accepted, see below.

•  What medical costs would be covered?
•  What expenses would I have to pay myself?
•  Are GP visits covered? Simple procedures?

The German system generally covers all treatments and medications deemed medically necessary, with only very few and small co-payments needed by the patient (e.g. €10/day of hospitalization or a couple of Euros per course for most medications). Routine and preventive examinations and treatment is inluded, as are most vaccinations.

Can anyone recommend a good ex-pat policy? What features should the policy have?

Most expat insurances fail tofulfill the following requirements:

• No maximum limit for coverage per year, contract or lifetime.
• Unlimited coverage of all treatments deemed medically necessary by the German medical system. This includes pregnancy/childbirth, basic dental treatments, mental illnesses and a wide range of ohers that internationalinsurers often exclude.
• Sufficient accruals (according to German regulations) to keep membership fees stable until your old age.

Don't I need an income of 66K per annum to be accepted by Private Health insurers?

Is there an online calculator or comparison website? I would obviously like to pay as little as possible.

Can I pick and choose differ different elements of the plan? e.g. no dental, increased co-payments?

Will I need an insurance broker?

Note: I have also had Public health insurance in Ireland for the last 30 years as well as private.

Public vs Private health insurance is not an either/or situation in Ireland.

Does this make a difference to my situation?

Don't I need an income of 66K per annum to be accepted by Private Health insurers?

Unfortunately, things are not that simple:

• You can only switch from public to private scheme under certain circumstances - having a high enough salary (only employment income is counted here!) is one of these circumstances, having no salary (and receiving no public assistance) is another.
• Once private, it is very difficult to switch back - and from 55 years age onwards entirely impossible.

Therefore, it is critical how your current situation in your home country is evaluated: If you are deemed currently public, you can (ormust) join the public scheme, if private you must join the private scheme.

It is beyond my abilities to judge this, you need to consult an expert - which only the insurers have. Thus you should (within three months of arriving in Germany) apply for membership at an insurer of your choice (public or private) and, if rejected because they assess you should be in the other scheme, lodge another application there.

Insurance brokers are of dubious help, as they live off commissions and thus do not advice objectively. For example, they will not recommend the public scheme, because it does not pay them anything.

Is there an online calculator or comparison website? I would obviously like to pay as little as possible.
Can I pick and choose differ different elements of the plan? e.g. no dental, increased co-payments?

For the public scheme, you pay 15.3 - 16.5% of your world income, depending on the insurer, subject to a minimum of about 180€/month and a maximum around 800€/month. The coverage is standardised and there is nothing to choose.

For the private scheme, fees depend on many factors, including your curent health and pre-existing conditions (which no automated system can assess) and there are very many tarfiffs and options to choose from. A first idea is available from online calculators, which you can find by googling "private Krankenversicherung Vergleich" (German language knowledge required!). Expect to pay more than in the public scheme - and with pre-existing conditions much more!