A fever thermometer, medication and a sick note lie on a bedside table.
© dpa
The Berlin Clearingstelle for people without health insurance has provided more counseling last year than the year before.
According to a report published by the Senate Department for Health on Tuesday, a total of about 4500 consultations for about 860 people have taken place in 2022. That's about 1000 more consultations than in 2021, according to the data.
More than half of those seeking counsel were reported to be homeless. The majority of those affected were male and between 18 and 59 years old. People with German citizenship made up the largest proportion of those seeking advice, closely followed by people with Vietnamese citizenship. In third and fourth place were people of Serbian and Polish nationality. The counseling sessions are free of charge and offered in several languages.
One of the tasks of the Clearingstelle, which is run by the Berliner Stadtmission, is to help people without health insurance find their way back into the insurance system and to inform them about existing entitlements. In 2022, according to the report, about 15 percent of those seeking advice who did not have health insurance at the initial interview were able to successfully find insurance. In addition, costs for medical treatment are covered as well, including treatment by general practitioners, addiction treatment, radiology and dentistry.