🩺 Health insurance during unemployment
In brief
When you are unemployed in Germany you do not have to arrange your health insurance yourself as long as you receive unemployment benefit I or Grundsicherungsgeld: in both cases you are compulsorily insured by law in statutory health and long-term care insurance, and the contributions are borne by the Bundesagentur für Arbeit or the federal government respectively. It matters mainly in the gaps – for example between the end of employment and the start of a benefit.
Step by step
- Clarify your membershipAs a rule you remain compulsorily insured with your previous statutory health insurance fund as soon as you receive unemployment benefit I or Grundsicherungsgeld.
- Avoid gapsSubmit the relevant benefit application as seamlessly as possible so that no insurance gap arises.
- In case of gaps, insure voluntarily or check safety-net insuranceIf a gap without other insurance cover nevertheless arises, you should contact a statutory health insurance fund immediately – since 2007 there has in principle been an insurance obligation for all persons living in Germany (safety-net insurance, Auffangversicherung).
- Check family insuranceIf you live with a working spouse or partner, contribution-free family insurance may be possible under certain circumstances.
Deadlines
- Do not rely on the health insurance fund informing you automatically if a gap arises between two benefits – get in touch actively as soon as a benefit ends or is delayed.
- The exact amount of the health insurance contribution borne by the federal government or the Bundesagentur für Arbeit during receipt of Grundsicherungsgeld or unemployment benefit I could not be conclusively verified in this research against a single official source stating an amount – for specific contribution questions the competent health insurance fund is the right point of contact.
- People with private health insurance must themselves take care of continuing their contract when unemployed; there is no automatic switch to statutory insurance without more.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Compulsory insurance during receipt of Grundsicherungsgeld
Under § 5 Abs. 1 Nr. 2a SGB V, persons who continuously receive Grundsicherungsgeld under § 19 Abs. 1 Satz 1 SGB II are compulsorily insured in statutory health insurance (with corresponding prior insurance usually through the most recently responsible health insurance fund). The contributions are borne by the federal government. The exact structure of the contribution amount is governed by separate administrative guidelines of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit; a concrete, verified contribution rate could not be stated with sufficient certainty in this research and is therefore deliberately not quantified here.
Compulsory insurance during unemployment benefit I
During receipt of unemployment benefit I, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit bears the contributions to health and long-term care insurance; membership of the most recently responsible statutory health insurance fund as a rule continues.
Safety-net insurance
Since the 2007 health reform, Germany has in principle had a general health insurance obligation for all persons resident in the country. Anyone who is not subject to any other compulsory insurance and was last statutorily insured regularly falls back automatically into statutory health insurance.
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