BARMER  Reviews 

Best services, amazing support. I have never complaint since 2022.

I think international students can go for another insurance provider like TK, as their customer support would be better for sure. I have set up my health insurance with Barmer as it was forced by the Fintiba Plus package, and right now after arriving in Germany, I wanted to start activating my health insurance and receive the health insurance card, but they aren’t responding for 10 days now.

At first when I contacted them before the insurance planner insurance activation date, they were really fast in responding and asked me to send the enrollment certificate when I have it and an address to post the card to, consequently, on the 14th of October, I sent an email to their customer support email containing the address and enrollment certificate and asked if there are further steps needed, 5 days later, still no response, resent my details again for confirmation on the 19th of October and all what happens, is receiving an automatic reply, but then now still no response and no any kind of update.

Really good and friendly service. As an international i was very satisfied!

I am asking BARMER to urgently reinstate my statutory membership and resolve this case — I am a matriculated student at Hochschule Rhein-Waal (registration no. 39263), and BARMER's own internal error has left me with no valid statutory health insurance, which is a legal requirement for my enrollment.

Here is exactly what happened, in order:

On 14 August 2026, BARMER received and approved an exemption from mandatory health insurance, submitted in my name by a private insurer (Expatrio). At the time, I was comparing two insurance/blocked-account providers, Expatrio and Fintiba Plus, as any foreign student abroad has to before choosing one — I created accounts with both to compare terms, and may have agreed to routine account-setup steps with either provider in the process. I never proceeded with, paid for, or activated anything with Expatrio, and ultimately chose Fintiba Plus, which includes BARMER statutory health insurance. Nothing in that comparison process made clear that it would result in an irreversible exemption from statutory health insurance being submitted to BARMER in my name — I have asked Expatrio to confirm in writing exactly what triggered this and when, and that confirmation is still pending.

As soon as I noticed the exemption, I contacted BARMER directly on 18 August 2026 (from tresorkakese5@ gmail com) and asked them to reverse it and enroll me in statutory membership instead, through Fintiba Plus. BARMER confirmed in writing on 19 August 2026, on that same thread, that they would do this.

BARMER then followed through — but corresponded about it on my other email address, tresorkakese@ gmail com: an official Welcome email on 21 August 2026, and confirmation on 26 August 2026 that they had received my university's enrollment notification (M20), with membership effective 1 September 2026. In other words, BARMER's own system had already correctly linked both of my email addresses to a single case and completed the reversal I had asked for.

Then, in September, three different case handlers (Mr. Lü..., Ms. Me..., and Ms. Sch...) replied on that same tresorkakese@ gmail com thread without apparent access to this history. On 25 September 2026, BARMER cancelled my statutory membership entirely, citing the original 14 August exemption as "binding and cannot be revoked" — a direct contradiction of BARMER's own written agreement five weeks earlier to reverse that exact exemption, and of the fact that BARMER had already carried the reversal out.

I currently have no valid statutory health insurance as an enrolled student — only supplementary travel coverage through Mawista/Fintiba Plus, which does not satisfy the legal requirement. I have formally disputed the 25 September cancellation with BARMER on both email threads, and have also asked Fintiba and my university's Studierendenservice to intervene. None of this has been resolved, and I am now preparing a formal written objection (Widerspruch) under German social insurance law if BARMER does not act first.

What I am asking BARMER to do, concretely: (1) reinstate my statutory membership effective 1 September 2026 as originally confirmed, with no gap in coverage; (2) merge my case file across both email addresses so future correspondence is handled by one team with full visibility; and (3) provide written confirmation that this has been done, since I need proof of valid insurance for my university and residence permit. I will update this review as soon as that happens — right now, five weeks after BARMER's own written promise to fix this, I am still uninsured through no fault of my own.

I just had an excellent experience at Barmer with Dorschel. She was very kind and answered all my questions. As a foreigner, I truly appreciate such helpfulness and kindness when dealing with these kinds of procedures. Thank you very much!

One star because 0 is not possible. Terrible decision. As an international student, I would never hire them again. The other options are better and easier, also, the others have better assistance when needed.

Dont go with it guys
They are the worst people in the service, don't even replies to your emails and expected call backs are literally awful. Their commitments are also a lie. Go for someone else.
Keeping away from it will keep your mind away from stress.
I had a issue going on with them for past 20 days but surprisingly all my calls and emails were useless. They dont even know what they are saying. I have to travel to munchen which is 3 hours ride from my university to get a word from them.
Disappointed 😞

I cannot recommend them to anyone. I have been trying to cancel my subscription for six months calling them everyfew days ; every time, I am told it will be cancelled, but nothing happens because the contracts department is separate and cannot be reached.

Barmer is completely unreliable, unhelpful, and ill-equipped to deal with English customers—particularly freelancers. If you prefer your sanity, and you do not want to be overcharged, avoid at all costs.

For context:

I have spent over seven weeks trying to have my contribution rate corrected, despite Barmer having all documentation required.

In this time, I have made 12 phone calls and have sent 14 emails. I have been promised call backs 3 times, only one of which ever eventuated.

On one of my calls to the English speaking hotline, I was advised that my problem would be resolved faster if I emailed the German customer service in German.

When I complained about this, a separate Barmer consultant said that the company only has 10 people working in the specialist department in English.

Is this a "legitimate" reason for not being able to deal with English-speaking customers? I don't work in healthcare, but I reckon a better strategy would be not offering a service you do not have capacity for.

I was also told by a Barmer employee that it was great that I had been so persistent with my 12 phone calls and 14 emails, because without them I would have ended up paying the highest contribution even though Barmer had all of the information that told them otherwise. Cool! Love that for me.

If you're already with Barmer, I would advise cross-checking all of their calculations because, quite honestly, they can't do their own job – as evidenced by the above.

Anyway, after that absolute nightmare and losing days of my life to the world's worst health insurance Barmer, I am moving to TK – which is cheaper than Barmer and also has complete, functional English customer service. I'd suggest you do the same.

EDIT: Barmer, telling me to contact you directly to figure this out after spending seven weeks contacting you directly to figure this out is a laughable response. Thanks for continuing to be utterly unhelpful! I cannot wait to never deal with you again.

Barmer are absolute criminals. My partner is a freelancer who uses Barmer. They told her they would be charging her the maximum amount for health insurance (1.140) per month as they needed a form. She only made 24.000 EUR Gross all last year. It took her months to finaly speak with one person who was actually helpful. When she got her tax return and submitted it they told her they would be charging the correct amount - around 300 EUR. Today Barmer too EUR 1.140 from her bank account, essentially all of her money for the month. Now they wont help and even hung the phone up when she called. Tryuly terrible service.

It’s funny, after my negative feedback they wrote they come back to me with an answer, one more week has passed and no answer yet…..
Terrible insurance company….!

I would like to sincerely thank Ms. Kathrin Thurow for her support during my appointment at Barmer.

I came in feeling stressed and frustrated, but she welcomed me with calmness, patience, and genuine understanding. She took her time to listen carefully and explain everything clearly, which immediately made a difficult situation much easier to handle.

Even though the outcome remained the same, her kindness and professionalism truly stood out to me, and I deeply appreciate the way she treated me throughout the appointment.

Thank you very much for your support.

Horrible,
If you can, skip this one
The way they work is such a mess
I am happy that I quit and so my husband

Around a week ago I left a review here on Barmer. I want to update my situation.
After explaining my financial situation and clearly stating that I cannot pay over 1,100€ at once, BARMER still withdrawed the full amount from my account without proper agreement.
This is extremely stressful and honestly shocking. I am a student with limited income, and this kind of action puts me in a situation where I genuinely do not know how I am supposed to cover basic living expenses like rent and food.
The whole situation started because their app did not work for me for months, so I could not access important messages. Because of this, I was not aware that contributions were accumulating.
Instead of understanding this, the response has been rigid and financially aggressive.
This experience has been extremely stressful and unfair, especially for a student trying to manage studies and basic living costs.

Worst service ever. They lost 4 years' worth of my tax info, which I regularly sent them, and they charged me thousands of euros at once as if it was my fault. Their "customer service" will also laugh in your face if you have a foreign accent. They are basically bullies whose sole interest is taking your money in exchange for absolutely no service.

Avoid at all costs.

People on the phone are unhelpful and unfriendly, prices and coverage are a joke, literally not a single redeeming factor.

My experience with Barmer was depressed. I came to Germany as an international student and just because they sent me the confirmation very late so I could not get my UniCard on time, hence, I could not go to the mensa and it was so stressful. All communications took forever. I thought when I left Germany to come back to my home country, all sufferings were over but even I did exactly what the support team advised (I carefully called them twice to ask what should I do to cancel my health insurance before leaving Germany), but Barmer still charged me for the next month. I was so stressful to contact the support team as advised by email(s) but nobody answered for days. I feel so sorry but please if you can, do not use Barmer services.

Update: Barmer has responded my request and the problem was solved.

I chose Barmer as the health insurer when relocating to Germany. Altough they gave me a document and written validation that my wife would be registered as dependent via me, they did not register her and did not sent her health card. They insist on NOT responding to any of my emails either.

Prefer any other provider then them.

My short experience with Barmer was extremely frustrating. I only worked in Germany for two months before moving back abroad, and during that time they showed a surprising level of incompetence. They repeatedly wrote my date of birth incorrectly, despite being given the correct details, and sent important letters to my employer’s address instead of my home address — even though I had clearly communicated this.
If I had stayed longer in Germany, I would not have trusted Barmer with my health insurance. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend them.

I have had the worst experience with Barmer so far. Everything was alright until I changed my bank. I went to barmer personally to change my bank information and they sent me to do it over the app only I was never able to do it in the app because of technical issues. Since then I had been trying to get in contact with them through email and replying to the messages I get on the app but no answer. This has been going on for MONTHS. I have gone another time to the office personally and they made me give the new bank information only to get another notice that it was not registered AGAIN and I had to still pay. 2 days ago I recieved a message from my LANDLORD saying THEY went to HER HOUSE to ask for the MONEY. I cannot believe that they would go to this extreme while NEVER answering to me. I had to explain the whole situation to the landlord I am SO humiliated! I went again today for the third time to the office just to be told that they NEVER recieved my messages and that they had NO register that I was EVER at their office even though I showed the proof that I DID indeed tried reaching and they even QUESTIONED ME ABOUT IT. Tonight I recieved another email that they will discontinue the service if I don't pay (after "sorting it out this morning"). I don't know what else to do. Writing emails does not work going in person does not work. AND I had to deal with all of this while NO ONE was able to speak in English to me and only in German.