Study requirement: health and long-term care insurance
Health and long-term care insurance is mandatory for students and must be proven when enrolling at a German university.
Students at state or state-recognized universities in Germany must prove that they have health insurance in order to enroll in their studies. The certificate of insurance must be presented at the time of enrollment. This also applies to students from abroad. The compulsory insurance automatically also applies to the social long-term care insurance (§ 20 Abs. 1 Nr. 9 Sozialgesetzbuch - Elftes Buch).
Students up to the age of 24 remain covered by their parents' statutory health insurance without having to pay contributions. This applies regardless of whether they live with their parents or not. Periods of voluntary military service, federal voluntary service or comparable service can extend this age limit by a maximum of twelve months, § 10 Paragraph 2 No. 3 Social Security Code - Fifth Book (SGB V).
Students older than 24 can choose whether they want to pay contributions to student statutory or private health insurance. In the case of statutory health insurance, it is worth comparing the contribution levels and the benefits offered!
Attention: Students who work more than 20 hours a week alongside their studies are insured as normal employees and pay higher contributions to health and long-term care insurance. The same applies if the total monthly income exceeds 520 euros (Section 10 (1) Sentence 1 No. 5 SGB V).
Those who were privately insured before their studies can choose either voluntary private or statutory student health insurance within the first three months after enrollment and pay the lower contribution for students. This decision is binding for the entire period of study.
Note: Privately insured students must pay for their own children's health insurance. The children of students with statutory health insurance, on the other hand, are automatically covered by non-contributory family insurance.
End of student statutory health insurance
The student statutory health insurance (KVdS) regularly ends when students are older than 29 years (§ 5 paragraph 1 No. 9 SGB V), namely at the end of the semester in which one is enrolled (§ 190 paragraph 9 SGB V). This maximum period can be extended in individual cases, e.g. in the event of the birth and care of a child, disability, acquisition of a university entrance qualification via the second educational pathway.
The Federal Social Court ruled on Oct. 15, 2014, that KVdS ends at the latest for students who are older than 36. Then students must either take out voluntary insurance in the statutory health insurance fund or private insurance. Please contact your health insurance company for more information.
Dual studies
Participants in dual study programs are treated the same as those employed for vocational training (apprentices) (§ 5 paragraph 4a sentence 2 SGB V). If they receive some kind of remuneration (salary, stipend), they are uniformly liable for health insurance, nursing care insurance, pension insurance and employment promotion insurance as employees. The more favorable conditions of the KVdS then do not apply to them.