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The sick note, and who pays
Health insurance is compulsory in Germany and around ninety per cent of people are in the public system, the gesetzliche Krankenversicherung, paid for by a percentage of salary split between employee and employer. You produce a card at the practice and generally pay nothing at the point of care. What surprises new arrivals is the Krankschreibung. If you are off work sick, you do not simply tell your employer — from the fourth day, and often from the first depending on your contract, you need a doctor's certificate, and you are legally entitled to full pay for up to six weeks. The counterpart is that being signed off means being off: working from home while krankgeschrieben is not the done thing, and some employers actively discourage it. Two other habits worth knowing. Germans go to the doctor readily, for things a British or American patient might wait out. And pharmacies, marked by a red A, hold a genuine monopoly on medicines — even paracetamol comes from behind the counter, not off a supermarket shelf.