private health insurance double insured
April 7, 2011 | 25,00 EUR | answered by Bernhard Müller
We cancelled our private health insurance with DKV in writing on 6.12.10. (by mail, but not by registered mail) The acceptance declaration of the new insurance (Hansemerkur) from DKV was delivered through the insurance intermediary. In mid-December, DKV wrote to us, informing us that we needed to cancel. Since we had already cancelled, we assumed it was a scheduling overlap.
When both insurance companies deducted the health insurance premiums in January, we called DKV to request clarification. We were told over the phone to resend the cancellation. We then sent it by registered mail.
We were later informed that the cancellation had been received too late and that we were still insured with DKV. Despite revoking the direct debit authorization, DKV continued to deduct payments. A phone call on 28.02.2011 ended with the other party hanging up. At least the March payments were not deducted again after we instructed our bank to cancel them.
Now we are receiving reminders for the outstanding payments.
Question: Is our cancellation valid or not? I could also send an empty envelope by registered mail to DKV. Sending by registered mail doesn't prove anything...
Dear inquirer,
You actually need to prove that the termination was received by the insurance company.
Regarding your first termination, the receipt is disputed. Since you cannot prove it, it must unfortunately be assumed that it was not received. Therefore, it is also not effective.
Regarding the second termination by registered mail.
The registered mail does not actually prove that you sent a termination, unless you have witnesses who saw what you put in the envelope. However, you have the response from the health insurance company: "the termination would have been received too late and we would still be insured with DKV."
I assume that this notification was received in writing by you. This means that the health insurance company admits that they received the second termination. It is therefore assumed that this second termination was received with the registered mail.
You can find out when the registered mail was delivered at the post office, unless it was already a registered mail with return receipt.
If DKV now claims that they did not receive this second termination by registered mail, then they must substantiate how else they would have come into possession of the termination, thus challenging this assumption.
It is possible that the registered mail arrived too late for the time you originally wanted to terminate. In that case, the termination would not be ineffective, but would be reinterpreted as a termination for the next possible date.
Until that time, you would actually still be insured with DKV.
Yours sincerely,
Bernhard Müller Attorney
