A few questions if anyone can help:
1. Are medication costs covered/subsidized by the state or otherwise by one's employer?
2. Is the pension portable if one changes employer in Norway or moves to another European country?
Norway questions
Response
In answer to your inquiries:
1) No and Yes, the patient pays for the cost of ., but they are imported at the national level allowing the the health care system to buy at scale and thus pass those savings on to the patient. The cost is pretty low the more common the mediation (a 10 day supple of a common antibiotic such as amoxicillin is equivalent to a few euro), however some medications that are very niche or rare can be costly, and usually the patient is advised to import them from elsewhere in the EU. It is possible for an employer (IS) to arrange third . coverage for its employees but this is uncommon, and generally wont benefit much in terms of . prices.
2) The pension is portable to other Nordic members prior to being vested, by portability this means a transfer that divests you in the current pension scheme and buys into the new regional pension scheme, and that different members have different schemes with different benefits. You can not have contributions made to an external social pension scheme.
Outside of those member nations it is not portable. Once you are vested you can collect your pension anywhere.
1) No and Yes, the patient pays for the cost of ., but they are imported at the national level allowing the the health care system to buy at scale and thus pass those savings on to the patient. The cost is pretty low the more common the mediation (a 10 day supple of a common antibiotic such as amoxicillin is equivalent to a few euro), however some medications that are very niche or rare can be costly, and usually the patient is advised to import them from elsewhere in the EU. It is possible for an employer (IS) to arrange third . coverage for its employees but this is uncommon, and generally wont benefit much in terms of . prices.
2) The pension is portable to other Nordic members prior to being vested, by portability this means a transfer that divests you in the current pension scheme and buys into the new regional pension scheme, and that different members have different schemes with different benefits. You can not have contributions made to an external social pension scheme.
Outside of those member nations it is not portable. Once you are vested you can collect your pension anywhere.
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TeacherGal
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Re: Norway questions
Preexisting medical conditions won't be an issue with state medical coverage. Correct?
Reply
@TeacherGal
Preexisting conditions wont be an issue or barred from treatment. About the only issue you need to consider is that in Norway most medical doctors (about 98%) are not specialists but are general practitioners (GP), and that the specialists they do have predominately work out of hospitals.
Everyone pays about the first USD$200 of health care costs in a year and then you are exempt from further payment. You will register with a GP and finding one that is fluent enough in English (all Norwegians study English in K12/KS) that you are comfortable with may be an issue, and a specialist even more so. Once you are registered with a GP you will make appointments with them and they will coordinate any referrals to specialists for specialized treatment. Once a diagnosis is obtained your treatment will probably be monitored by your GP and your treatment done on an outpatient basis at the hospital with occasional consultations with a specialist. In Oslo this system is more convenient, outside Oslo it can be a bit of a hardship.
Preexisting conditions wont be an issue or barred from treatment. About the only issue you need to consider is that in Norway most medical doctors (about 98%) are not specialists but are general practitioners (GP), and that the specialists they do have predominately work out of hospitals.
Everyone pays about the first USD$200 of health care costs in a year and then you are exempt from further payment. You will register with a GP and finding one that is fluent enough in English (all Norwegians study English in K12/KS) that you are comfortable with may be an issue, and a specialist even more so. Once you are registered with a GP you will make appointments with them and they will coordinate any referrals to specialists for specialized treatment. Once a diagnosis is obtained your treatment will probably be monitored by your GP and your treatment done on an outpatient basis at the hospital with occasional consultations with a specialist. In Oslo this system is more convenient, outside Oslo it can be a bit of a hardship.
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TeacherGal
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Re: Norway questions
I've read a review of a school in Norway where a teacher complains they are not being paid what Norwegian teachers are being paid in their national schools and that's illegal but nothing can be done. Is this possible? I would have thought Norway was run by rule of law in every way.
Would Sweden or Denmark offer a better benefit package including pension and medical?
Would Sweden or Denmark offer a better benefit package including pension and medical?
Reply
@TeacherGal
Nothing in IE surprises me anymore, just about any scenario is conceivable, that said I dont see the whole of Norways DTs working for free.
Not really much of a difference. In Sweden its very similar to Norway except the annual deductible (the amount in health care services you pay before you are exempt from further costs) is half of Norways (about €100/yr) and Sweden has a deductible on prescriptions (about €200/yr), at which point you no longer pay subscription costs.
In Denmark you are assigned a General Practitioner but you pay nothing for services from your GP from day one including specialists. The patient pays for prescriptions but like Norway they are negotiated at the national level, and the costs for common medications is trivial.
As far as pensions the regions are generally the same, you and your employer make contributions which once you hit a vested time of around 10 years you own your pension and can collect when you are eligible. There are differences, but comparable to cost of living in the differing regions they are equivalent.
ISs in these regions generally rely on the regional social insurance scheme. A typical OSH package at an IS is: Salary, relocation for the employee (flights), some temporary housing, and social insurance. Though one benefit you typically find is some kind of health or athletic membership. You probably arent going to get a shipping/shopping/settling allowance, or yearly flights, or flights for family or housing.
Nothing in IE surprises me anymore, just about any scenario is conceivable, that said I dont see the whole of Norways DTs working for free.
Not really much of a difference. In Sweden its very similar to Norway except the annual deductible (the amount in health care services you pay before you are exempt from further costs) is half of Norways (about €100/yr) and Sweden has a deductible on prescriptions (about €200/yr), at which point you no longer pay subscription costs.
In Denmark you are assigned a General Practitioner but you pay nothing for services from your GP from day one including specialists. The patient pays for prescriptions but like Norway they are negotiated at the national level, and the costs for common medications is trivial.
As far as pensions the regions are generally the same, you and your employer make contributions which once you hit a vested time of around 10 years you own your pension and can collect when you are eligible. There are differences, but comparable to cost of living in the differing regions they are equivalent.
ISs in these regions generally rely on the regional social insurance scheme. A typical OSH package at an IS is: Salary, relocation for the employee (flights), some temporary housing, and social insurance. Though one benefit you typically find is some kind of health or athletic membership. You probably arent going to get a shipping/shopping/settling allowance, or yearly flights, or flights for family or housing.
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TeacherGal
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- Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am
Re: Norway questions
Thanks Psyguy. Good info to mull over. I guess Finland and Iceland are similar.
Re: Norway questions
one thing to remember is that these countries may allow your employer to give you stipends and allowances BUT they are taxed. make sure you have startup cash.
v.
v.
Discussion
You need about USD$5K, when searching for housing, your IS isnt going to give you much in temporary housing and they arent going to absorb the costs of deposits, and other fees.
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TeacherGal
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Re: Norway questions
Thanks for info and suggestions. What about..
1. Would my pension contributions be transportable after 1 year to another country in the EU?
2. What type of pension would I be looking at and at what age would I be eligible if I were starting in my mid-40s?
3. Would it be possible to leave Norway after a certain period of time to teach outside of Europe and continue with the Norwegian pension scheme by contributing to it myself from abroad?
1. Would my pension contributions be transportable after 1 year to another country in the EU?
2. What type of pension would I be looking at and at what age would I be eligible if I were starting in my mid-40s?
3. Would it be possible to leave Norway after a certain period of time to teach outside of Europe and continue with the Norwegian pension scheme by contributing to it myself from abroad?
Reply
@TeacherGal
In response to your inquiries:
1) No, well you could transfer it to another Nordic Council region (Sweden, etc.). You cant transfer it too Italy, Switzerland or Germany, etc..
Usually it doesnt work that way, the typical scenario is a DT in Norway does an exchange program in somewhere like Sweden and they transfer the credit back to Norway. You would have to acquire and enroll in another Nordic regions eligible pension scheme and then transfer the credit, and that all assumes its worth hiring someone to make all that happen for you because youre not going to be able to do it yourself.
I dont know if it would even be worth it, the government isnt going to want to do it and you would probably have a hard enough battle just getting them to cash out the coin in the pension, as their standard treatment of this would be to keep the funds in a pension you will never collect from.
2) 67, thats the easy answer. It really depends though on factors, there are three components of the pension scheme, the national component, the occupational component (Teachers union basically) and then the public service component (if your IS is a regulated international academy or trust DS, etc.). You could take early retirement from occupational at 59 and public after 20 years.
National is a bit more difficult, you would need to be a citizen which would require 7 years to qualify for citizenship but then once you hit 67 you would get something regardless of how little or long you worked. This is typically 40 year of service, but Norway has a supplemental pension program for those with less and a minimum pension for those with few or little credits.
If we assume 20 years youd get about 60% of the national pension, and then 80% of your average for occupational and if you had public service as well you would have full benefit from that. This assumes though that you are contributing to all three of these pension components. Only the National componet is mandatory. All of these benefits are subject to change.
3) No, these are all managed programs there is no way to contribute independently. Pension programs arent a token system where you collect golden tokens from EU employers and then figure out which region will take the fewest number of tokens for the biggest coin payoff. You can game the system, but its not a financial market like buying stocks online.
Probably the best payoff option is you could do your seven years and get your Norwegian citizenship (which doesnt allow for dual citizenship) and that would provide you about 40% of the full pension under the supplemental and minimum national pension options, then after those 7-8 years you could go to another similar region and basically collect 2 minimum pensions giving you about 80% of the full benefit after only 12-15 years which you could then relocate to a region that was very inexpensive to live in like the LCSA or Asia. You still would have a few years before you could collect however.
Steal meet stone, one year in Norway will probably amount to a nice but modest bonus in cashing out your pension contributions.
In response to your inquiries:
1) No, well you could transfer it to another Nordic Council region (Sweden, etc.). You cant transfer it too Italy, Switzerland or Germany, etc..
Usually it doesnt work that way, the typical scenario is a DT in Norway does an exchange program in somewhere like Sweden and they transfer the credit back to Norway. You would have to acquire and enroll in another Nordic regions eligible pension scheme and then transfer the credit, and that all assumes its worth hiring someone to make all that happen for you because youre not going to be able to do it yourself.
I dont know if it would even be worth it, the government isnt going to want to do it and you would probably have a hard enough battle just getting them to cash out the coin in the pension, as their standard treatment of this would be to keep the funds in a pension you will never collect from.
2) 67, thats the easy answer. It really depends though on factors, there are three components of the pension scheme, the national component, the occupational component (Teachers union basically) and then the public service component (if your IS is a regulated international academy or trust DS, etc.). You could take early retirement from occupational at 59 and public after 20 years.
National is a bit more difficult, you would need to be a citizen which would require 7 years to qualify for citizenship but then once you hit 67 you would get something regardless of how little or long you worked. This is typically 40 year of service, but Norway has a supplemental pension program for those with less and a minimum pension for those with few or little credits.
If we assume 20 years youd get about 60% of the national pension, and then 80% of your average for occupational and if you had public service as well you would have full benefit from that. This assumes though that you are contributing to all three of these pension components. Only the National componet is mandatory. All of these benefits are subject to change.
3) No, these are all managed programs there is no way to contribute independently. Pension programs arent a token system where you collect golden tokens from EU employers and then figure out which region will take the fewest number of tokens for the biggest coin payoff. You can game the system, but its not a financial market like buying stocks online.
Probably the best payoff option is you could do your seven years and get your Norwegian citizenship (which doesnt allow for dual citizenship) and that would provide you about 40% of the full pension under the supplemental and minimum national pension options, then after those 7-8 years you could go to another similar region and basically collect 2 minimum pensions giving you about 80% of the full benefit after only 12-15 years which you could then relocate to a region that was very inexpensive to live in like the LCSA or Asia. You still would have a few years before you could collect however.
Steal meet stone, one year in Norway will probably amount to a nice but modest bonus in cashing out your pension contributions.
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TeacherGal
- Posts: 128
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Re: Norway questions
Thank you, Psyguy.
How does the salary scale for school administration compare to that for teachers in Norway?
How does the salary scale for school administration compare to that for teachers in Norway?
Reply
@TeacherGal
Its not like it is in the US where a classroom DT with 5 years experience moves into a senior leadership role the next year and now they are making double the coin. Income and salary scales look pretty flat in Norway, lawyers dont make vastly more than DTs do. What you see is around a 25% increase in coin from the classroom DT to a campus based senior leadership position at the same level of experience. It doesnt seem like a lot, but when you are in a region where the salary is a very narrow deviation between professions (flat) small changes like 20%-25% have significant impacts on lifestyle.
I wouldnt want to be in leadership in Norway, its a very boring job, you spend a lot of time attending meetings with other leadership talking about things you could do, and limitations and weaknesses of data and ultimately deciding on doing and changing nothing.
Its not like it is in the US where a classroom DT with 5 years experience moves into a senior leadership role the next year and now they are making double the coin. Income and salary scales look pretty flat in Norway, lawyers dont make vastly more than DTs do. What you see is around a 25% increase in coin from the classroom DT to a campus based senior leadership position at the same level of experience. It doesnt seem like a lot, but when you are in a region where the salary is a very narrow deviation between professions (flat) small changes like 20%-25% have significant impacts on lifestyle.
I wouldnt want to be in leadership in Norway, its a very boring job, you spend a lot of time attending meetings with other leadership talking about things you could do, and limitations and weaknesses of data and ultimately deciding on doing and changing nothing.
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TeacherGal
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am
Re: Norway questions
Thanks Psyguy.
What would be the best European country to work in to begin a pension in mid-40s or after a stint in Norway do you think?
What would be the best European country to work in to begin a pension in mid-40s or after a stint in Norway do you think?
Reply
@TeacherGal
1) Whatever region you can stay in the classroom the longest. Thats what is going to matter the most, if it means you have the work/life balance that keeps you in the classroom and on salary the longest.
2) Elite tier ISs in the EU; These ISs have various pension and retirment options and they pay the best, in some of the most exciting and livable cities and locations.
3) Switzerland; the pension and social scheme is better but not 'wow' better, but making 6 figure coin is going to give you the financial resources to save and invest.
4) Northern Europe; youre in the right region the Nordic regions are the best in the EU. Of them Finland probably has the best, but Sweden has the shortest to citizenship (and they allow dual citizenship).
5) Germany; of the WE regions, everyone else is broke or you have to work forever for a modest pension, the UK is the worst.
6) The Kingdom; not in the EU and its the ME, but It would be irresponsible to point out the one reason to go to the ME, and thats a laser focus on the coin. 6 figure coin, tax free, full OSH package, spend 5 years there and you can go somewhere cheap like the LCSA and live out your remaining days well all before you hit 50. Do it for 10 years with very low risk retirement investments and you can go just about anywhere and live comfortably. Best if you choose somewhere that has very inexpensive or socialized health care.
1) Whatever region you can stay in the classroom the longest. Thats what is going to matter the most, if it means you have the work/life balance that keeps you in the classroom and on salary the longest.
2) Elite tier ISs in the EU; These ISs have various pension and retirment options and they pay the best, in some of the most exciting and livable cities and locations.
3) Switzerland; the pension and social scheme is better but not 'wow' better, but making 6 figure coin is going to give you the financial resources to save and invest.
4) Northern Europe; youre in the right region the Nordic regions are the best in the EU. Of them Finland probably has the best, but Sweden has the shortest to citizenship (and they allow dual citizenship).
5) Germany; of the WE regions, everyone else is broke or you have to work forever for a modest pension, the UK is the worst.
6) The Kingdom; not in the EU and its the ME, but It would be irresponsible to point out the one reason to go to the ME, and thats a laser focus on the coin. 6 figure coin, tax free, full OSH package, spend 5 years there and you can go somewhere cheap like the LCSA and live out your remaining days well all before you hit 50. Do it for 10 years with very low risk retirement investments and you can go just about anywhere and live comfortably. Best if you choose somewhere that has very inexpensive or socialized health care.