Moving to München need info about healthcare and accommodation

Hello and welcome on board Antonin !

Till members guide you, feel free to read the articles under the Healthcare in Germany section of the guide and the Accommodation in Munich article.

You may also create an advert in the housing section to see if you receive any offers for homeshare/flatshare.

All the best

Bhavna

Although Munich is a cosmopolitan melting pot, it will be difficult enjoying it fully without good German language skills. So by all means do learn it as quickly as you can!

In terms of accommodation, Munich is the most difficult place in Germany (from a renter's perspective). Plan on staying in temporary accommodation (hotel of B&B) for the first few months while searching for a permanent place!

The usual sites for rental ads are kleinanzeigen.de, immoscout24.de and for shared flats also wg-gesucht.de. You need German to understand the ads and, even more critical, the rental contract before you sign it!

The health insurance system is very complex and too difficult to explain here. Basically, you can only choose the private scheme if you earn above a certain threshold - and then almost never change back to public (even if, as expected, the costs of private insurance surge when you get older or sicker). Also, the public scheme (which might be costlier for young and healthy members) provides free coverage for your spouse and kids - an invaluable advantage if you plan to have a family.

The health insurance system is very complex and too difficult to explain here. Basically, you can only choose the private scheme if you earn above a certain threshold - and then almost never change back to public (even if, as expected, the costs of private insurance surge when you get older or sicker). Also, the public scheme (which might be costlier for young and healthy members) provides free coverage for your spouse and kids - an invaluable advantage if you plan to have a family.        -@beppi

It should be clarified that while minor children are covered at no extra cost under public healthcare options, a spouse is covered for free only if they don't work. If they do work then they also have to contribute. A family with a non-working spouse will almost certainly be much better off with a public option. A couple with no kids and both working fulltime might reasonably consider a private option.

What often gets left out in the discussion is that with a public option, one can often add private supplemental policies to get  additional benefits one might desire. This is especially popular for specific dental coverage which is not well covered under public options beyond the very basics. Such policies are flexible; one can get one for as long as they deem necessary and later drop it.

Another factor about private insurance is that one has to pay medical bills first out of pocket and then later get reimbursed by the insurance. I have heard a number of stories lately about people who had a good job and private insurance but ended up with poor health and could not  longer work.  Now becau´se of haviung limited financial resources are having trouble to pay the medical bills up front. With public options, all payments are direct from the insurance to the provider; one doesn't even know what the actual costs are.

Thank you for your replies. I really appreciate !

Not sure if I understand well about the healthcare. However, if it is difficult to change from private to public ; I should probably choose first public and then see on my needs, either choosing supplemental policies or switch to private depending on the situation. (For the moment, I have no clue how long I will stay in Germany, could be a couple of years or definitively)

Concerning the accomodation, my future coworkers have already warned me how difficult it is. However, I did not really expect to stay months before finding one...