Experience with Mawista health insurance –
For anyone who might come across this thread in a search, I had an extremely bad experience with Mawista (specifically Mawista Science) and do not recommend it to anyone who will be in Germany for more than a couple of months or who doesn’t know exactly how long they will be here. It is travel insurance and so is absolutely unsuitable for postdocs, despite what they claim. Here was my experience:
1. Upon discovering I needed an operation, I phoned and asked what to do. I was told I could just take my insurance documents with me to the hospital. This was a flat-out lie. Luckily I got worried a bit later and had a German speaker phone for me – she was told that I needed to send certain documents to Mawista, including stuff from the doctor which she had never had to supply to an insurance company before. I then had to wait about three weeks until the week before the surgery, after repeated phone calls, I got authorisation to have the operation. This added considerable stress to the process and was extremely unpleasant, but I thought I was now done.
2. I was worried about the operation being approved at all, because if you read the small print it says any operation which can be “delayed” is not covered, and it seemed like there was a lot of wiggle room for Mawista there. It also had multiple references to trips to the “home country” for treatment, but this is not an option for postdocs who do not have a “home country” where they will have a second insurance.
3. Finally I had the operation, and thought everything was ok. A month later I received a phone call from the hospital saying that Mawista had not paid because they were saying they needed the Arztbrief, which the hospital could only release to me. Mawista had never mentioned this requirement to me. The hospital sent it to me and I sent it to Mawista, and they finally paid after delaying doing so for about two months.
4. At around the same time, my original contract with Mawista was coming to an end. I hadn’t realised when I took the insurance that Mawista is travel insurance, and therefore they can refuse to extend your policy. This makes it useless for anyone who doesn’t know in advance exactly how long they will be in Germany, since if you suddenly cost them money they can refuse to give you cover, as they did to me. This left me trying to get private insurance with a preexisting condition. Thank goodness it is not a serious condition and I was able to get private cover. If I had transferred directly to a public insurance when I left the UK, I would have had no problem but having been on Mawista I was disqualified from doing that now (which noone warned me about when I signed up).
5. Take a look at Mawista’s facebook page. There are only positive comments. Why? Well, when I wrote a comment about my experience, and replied to someone asking how other people’s experiences had been, my comments were deleted and I can no longer write on the page. The girl asking for other people’s experiences still has no responses. Not a good sign..
In conclusion, Mawista science is an extremely risky insurance for postdocs, who often have their contracts extended by a few months to a year, to take. It should not be marketed to people moving to Germany who are unfamiliar with how much insurance should cost. Insurance which can be cancelled if something goes wrong is not insurance. Be very very careful with Mawista.
source: http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t269912.html
I was wandering if you still have a contract saved of the stipulations? I’m looking at getting insurance as a Masters student and trying to figure out the right health insurance. And even with your experience the money/costs are pointing towards mawista
I also had a very bad experience with this Insurance. I am a master student and because I turned 30 years old, The public Insurance which I had contract costed me too much so I decided to convert to MAWISTA. My problem was that I did the contract with them 3 weeks before my current insurance ended. here in Germany all the students must be under the cover of a health Insurance and not even 1 day you can not excluded from this law. That is why i did the contract exactly 3 weeks before the expire date of my public one.
Exactly 2 days before the starting of Mawista cover, I felt extremely sick with very high fever and I went to the University Clinic. they couldn’t find out what was my problem and they just took some blood tests and send me home. after the beginning of the MAWISTA, i went to one housartz ( General Doctor) . He took some other tests and Diagnosed my illness as a simple common virus and he started the procedure of treatment. it took 3 month with blood tests and Ultra sonic monitorings. I send all the receipts to MAWISTA and they ask for my doctor Medical ATTEST. I send them and they said to me that because my fever started before the contract date, They are not covering my Influenza.
It costs me nearly 950.00 Euros for a simple Influenza. They seem to look for a single stupid reason not to pay.
my previous Insurance also told me if I did not do the contract with Mawista, they would cover for 1 month but because I did, they won’t cover it.
What would you do if you were instead of me? not obeying the law and didn’t do the contract? I am sure I am a human being and I can not tell my body when to show High Fever. If i could I would absolutely postpone my Fever but I could not.
So, I definitely and strictly advise you not to do any private health Insurance contract here in Germany specially with This MAWISTA Insurance. because they are not logical and they just look for a tiny reason not to cover even a simple illness.
Thank you for the input. Still some people go for it because its cheap!!!
-Admin
Thank you very much, if I didn’t see this page and comments, tomorrow I would sign contract.
Instead of MAWISTA, which insurance do you recommend?
I was a master student in Germany and finished the study program few weeks ago with the thesis colloquium. the university has told me that i would be getting the Exmatrikulatioinsbeschinigung by end of August 2016. I am insured with AOK currently and it would become very costly for me as i am no longer a student. I came across MAWISTA and then this review page. Although MAWISTA is cheaper for me i am still not sure if it can be good for me. Can anybody please tell me if switching insurance to MAWISTA Student comfort would be ok?
I am a new master student in Potsdam. After a research online i see MAWISTA as the only affordable option for me. Please, if you can suggest something reliable with low cost, this would be great. I must add that i am 29 years old so the private insurance solution is the only way for me….
Hi Pandora,
So which insurance did you go for? And how was it?
Regards
Admin
I have had mawista student for the past 5 months, it worked well up, 4 visits to doctor for ruptured achilles . then rerupture and surgery. still no bill yet, but they have paid on time, sometimes not the entire bill, so i have to follow up. But after reading this page i am worried they won’t pay for my achilles surgery. guess we will see.
A week ago my fiancee got a mail if she wanted to extend her contract with Mawista. Today she called the guy telling him that she would like to do so. Then she asked what would happen in a case of pregnancy etc etc. After that she was not able to extend the contract anymore for unknown reasons – unknown to the employe on the other side of the phone at least. She must now fill out a new one with far worse conditions than before. They are all the same. Capitialstic bastards with no heart. Don´t sign a contract here!
Yes, I agree Mawista is not an insurance company to use. They are only taking your money and when they are aware of new development, example surgery, pregnancy, dental etc then they stop dealing with you.
Basically, you are left out in the cold. They even change conditions without you knowing the details. For your own sanity please select a different insurance coverage.
Be mindful they won’t tell you that your insurance coverage will not be prolonged unless you have not requested claims from them. Also, they won’t indicate it won’t be prolonged if you don’t ask them about conditions that will cost them.
So unbeknown to you, you will have your insurance coming to an end and not knowing they won’t extend it until the last minute. The last dead minute.
Mawista is the worst private insurance I have ever heard of. They left me with a bill of about 1,800€ after a medical procedure. They kept on asking for documents after documents from the hospital. I had to make arrangement to settle this hospital bill.
Take Mawista for the purposes of documentation and legal compliance, if you may, but dont rely on it for treatment. It will cost you needless stress. The simply won’t pay, and will get away with it because of some of their vague fine prints that seems to help them not to accept liability.
uh,
thanks for sharing your experience with others
How do you switch to a different private health insurance provider after you have used Mawista for visa purposes? Do you have to give up on the insurance money completely?
what do you mean by insurance money?
My girlfriend had very similar experiences with this insurance. They simply don’t pay the bills. Communciation is terrible.
that’s sad. is she still with them?
Of course not. Today – after 7 months – they payed a bit over 400 euro. We had over 6000 euro medical bills because of an urgend operation that needed to be done. I can just recommended to stay away from this company.
Wow.. :/ such bad reputation