To determine your eligibility, you can use our free, digital health insurance recommendation tool.
What does the eligibility depend on?
In Germany, everyone must have health insurance whether they’re only here for a temporary stay for tourist reasons, to study, to visit family, or to work. If you are simply a tourist, travel insurance is going to be enough, but as soon as you establish a residence in Germany, you have to look into a more permanent insurance option. The most important thing, which will also determine the person's eligibility for public insurance, is as follows: some people are pflichtversichert (mandatorily insured), and some are freiwillig versichert (voluntarily insured).
Mandatorily insured
Mandatorily insured are people who work for a company registered in Germany, earn between €538 and €5,775 per month, and are under 55 years of age. As the name says, they must be insured under the public system, and cannot choose to go for private health insurance. That also means they are accepted without any further requirements. The mandatory health insurance contribution is set to around 19% of earnings, half paid by the employer.
Students up to 30 years of age are also mandatory insured. They also have the option to request an exemption from public health insurance at the beginning of their studies and go with expat health insurance, but this is not something we would recommend.
Voluntarily insured
Self-employed and freelancers
If they don't meet the below-mentioned requirements, SMART could be an option
Artists and publicists might be able to sign up through KSK
Job seekers
Mini jobbers (monthly income up to €538)
Students over 30 years of age
Employees over 55 years of age
Employees with a yearly income above €69,300 ( if insured already under private insurance in Germany, they cannot pass back to public insurance unless their yearly income falls under the private insurance threshold)
Voluntarily insured members have the option to go for either public or private health insurance, but they also have to meet specific requirements in order to be accepted into either one. In order to join private health insurance, employees have to earn above €69,300 gross yearly, and anyone else (self-employed, contract outside of Germany, capital income) has to earn above €30,000 gross yearly.
The requirements of getting public health insurance for voluntary members
Voluntary public health insurance is an extension of already existing state insurance from the EU/EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, which means that you can pass to German voluntary public health insurance only if your insurance from these countries ended less than 3 months ago and prior to that it was active for at least 12 full consecutive months, or at least 24 months within the last 5 years, with possible interruptions. Voluntary insurance contributions are around 19% of earnings, with a minimum fixed set monthly fee of around €220.
Special rules:
Employees over 55 years of age can access the public system if they are not switching from private health insurance and if they have been covered by the public system in one of the EU/EEA countries for at least one day within the last 5 years, or they haven't had residence in Germany within the last 5 years.
Employees with a yearly income above €69,300 are also so-called voluntary insured since they can also choose between public and private health insurance. However, the eligibility rules for them are a bit different. They can get into public health insurance without previous EU/EEA state coverage, as long as they are not switching from German private health insurance to public.
Important to know - EHIC
If you are coming to Germany to search for work, or to study a language course, and your EU/EEA, UK, or Swiss state insurance is valid, you do not need to sign up for German insurance and can use your EHIC/GHIC to have access to healthcare in Germany as long as your home insurance provider allows for that. You can remain insured that way for at least 6 months, and once you start generating income here, you will need to pass to German insurance.
Anyone that is voluntarily insured, but does not meet the above-mentioned requirements for either public or private insurance, could benefit from our expat health insurance.
It is worth mentioning that one can also find a way into public insurance as a family dependent.