[NAGDU] Ownership in Germany - for Rebecca and everyone who's interested

[Star Gazer]

				Lisa, I haven't read your note, though I do
thank you for sending it. 
I'm wondering if the schools model themselves off of how the military used
to treat their dogs. 
If anybody wants to watch a show that will make you cry, watch the program
War Dogs. It goes into detail about the Vietnam War and the men who used
dogs and how these dogs were treated after the war, and the impact that
treatment had on their handlers. 

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Belville via
NAGDU
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 2:20 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Lisa Belville <missktlab1217 at frontier.com>
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Ownership in Germany - for Rebecca and everyone who's
interested

Wow, Lisa, this arrangement has the potential to be very damaging if an
insurance company decided to assert their ownership rights.  what happens
when your dog retires or if it becomes too sick to work?  Do they have a say
so in what happens then?

I guess I'm glad we don't have this system here even if we don't have decent
healthcare.  Woops, not wanting to be political, but just imagining how it
would be if guide dogs were handled by our healthcare and insurance systems.

Lisa

Lisa Belville
missktlab1217 at frontier.com
I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and
procrastinate all at once.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisa via NAGDU" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Lisa" <dreamymarmot93 at yahoo.de>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 5:39 AM
Subject: [NAGDU] Ownership in Germany - for Rebecca and everyone who's
interested


> Hi Rebecca,
>
>
> you asked if I could explain how ownership is handled in Germany. I'll 
> try. ;-)
>
>
> Over here, a guide dog is listed as an aid to midigate a disability 
> like a wheelchair or a cane. This means health insurance pays for the 
> dog. You have to get a prescription from your eye specialist, find 
> yourself a school that suits you and then apply for cost acquision 
> with your health insurance company. In most cases, this is a long and 
> annoying process because many people get denied at first. Not because 
> of concerns regarding your ability to take care of a dog but because 
> of the high costs a guide dog brings. But anyway, after you succeeded 
> in applying and also in training with your new guide, your health 
> insurance company becomes the owner of the dog. They remain the owner 
> until you retire your dog. Then you can either keep it and become the 
> owner yourself or find him/her a home.
>
> There are only two schools in Germany that handle ownership differently. 
> They remain owner of the dog and the health insurance still pays for 
> the dog.
>
> The big difference to the US is, in my understanding, that we don't 
> have the opportunity to get ownership for our working dogs at all.
>
>
> I should also add that even though your health insurance company is 
> the owner of the dog in most cases they don't care about it much. I 
> have to send in documents that say Taylor gets vaccinated once a year, 
> a worm preventative twice a year and I have a liability insurance for 
> him. Apart from that, they aren't interested in what I'm doing with my
dog.
>
>
> Lisa
>
>
>
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