When you are granted benefits as per Asylum Seekers Benefit Law, your necessary medical care is financially supported by the When you are granted benefits as per Asylum Seekers Benefit Law, your necessary medical care is financially supported by the Amt für Soziales und Integration (Welfare and Integration Office).

For every quarter of the year, the Welfare and Integration Offic issues to you treatment vouchers (for medical examinations in case of acute diseases, pains or pregnancy) for the medical care by a general practitioner, a dentist or a gynaecologist, if applicable.By means of these vouchers you can be treated by the physicians in Dessau-Roßlau. For the continuing treatment by a specialist and for dental treatments, you have to file an application with the Welfare and Integration Office. This application has to be mailed to the Welfare and Integration Office or handed in at the Bürgerbüro (Citizens' Office) in an addressed envelope.

As soon as you have been granted an ensured asylum status and are paid allowances by the Jobcenter, the medical care for you is also changing. You get your own health insurance by a Krankenkasse (health insurance company). For this purpose, you file an application with a health insurance company. The costs are borne by the Jobcenter, as long as you are unemployed. You get your own health insurance card and can go to a physician without a treatment voucher.

The health insurance company does not pay the total cost of some medical treatments. You may apply for an allowance to the costs or the bearing of the costs by the Jobcenter. You are entitled to all regular services of the health insurance companies after a qualifying period of 15 months.

People who do not hold any health insurance and are not in asylum proceedings are given medical assistance by Medinetzen (medical networks).

In Germany, every member of the statutory health insurance scheme automatically becomes a member of the social nursing care insurance scheme too. The social nursing care insurance fund bears part of the cost when a person needs long-term nursing care in Germany. In need of long-term nursing care are persons who cannot independently live on their own for health reasons and need assistance from other people. The decision on the need of longterm nursing care is taken by the competent nursing care insurer. You have to apply for benefits from the statutory nursing care insurance fund with your nursing care insurer. Depending on the necessary care and the care degree of person requiring long-term nursing, the nursing care insurance fund:

• financially assists the care of the affected person in his/her flat with or without assistance by ambulant nursing services, or
• in a nursing home.

When relatives render the care at home, a nursing care allowance can be applied for. Regarding advice is given by all nursing care insurers or in the Zentralen Informationsbüro „Leben und Wohnen im Alter und mit Behinderung“(Central Information Office "Living and Housing at Old Age or with Handicap").

The German government promotes the equal participation of people with physical, mental or psychic handicaps in social life. Severely handicapped persons are specifically protected in their occupational and professional activities in Germany, e.g. regarding the termination of labour contracts. When you suffer from a handicap or severe handicap, a (severely) handicapped certificate is issued to you by the Landesverwaltungsamt  (State Administration) on application, as proof of the degree of your handicap. You can benefit from this document in public transport, for example. Advice and assistance concerning handicaps are given by the kommunalen Behindertenbeauftragten (Municipal Commissioner for Handicapped Citizens) sowie von Behindertenverbänden (handicapped people's associations).

Should you suffer from psychic impairments, support by psychological advice and therapy is given by the Psychosozialen Zentrum für Migrantinnen und Migranten in Sachsen-Anhalt (Psycho-Social Centre for Migrants in Saxony-Anhalt). In the centres at Halle and Magdeburg, you are assisted in the mental digestion of experienced persecution, violence and torture. Children, adolescents and families are also welcome in the Psycho-Social Centre. All services are free. In case of need, interpreters can also be ask to render free assistance.

When you are member of a health insurance scheme, you can get a psycho-therapeutic treatment by psychotherapists. Asylum seekers with specific needs are also entitled to psychological treatment by psychotherapists. This applies, inter alia, to minors, handicapped people, elderly people, persons suffering from mental impairments and persons who have been exposed to severe forms of psychic, physical or sexual violence. To identify the special needs, the individual case is checked. When you need psychotherapy, contact your family physician and ask him/her to issue a transfer voucher. Afterwards you can directly consult a psychotherapist. You find them e.g. on the website of the Kassenärztlichen Vereinigung Sachsen-Anhalt (Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians).