Health insurance for the unemployed

Hi all,

I've recently moved to Hamburg from the UK and I'm living with my German girlfriend. My plan at the moment is to study German in a language school and search for part time work at the same time. Then in a couple of months start looking for a real job.

However as I'm not a student, not employed, not claiming benefits and not on holiday I can't find any health insurance. I've read the information on here provided by Patrick Ott but none of this seems to relate to me. Has anyone else found themselves in this situation? Does anyone have any information or details of any schemes that may help me?

Thanks in advance,

For the first few months (three?, six?) you're still covered by the NHS, as far as I'm aware. If you register as unemployed, then I'm fairly sure you can get into one of the GKKs (public health insurance system) with the unemployment office picking up the tab.

If you're planning on staying here permanently, then it's worth registering with the unemployment office anyway, even when you aren't entitled to any unemployment benefit, because simply being registered builds up pension entitlement. If I remember correctly, you may need to re-register every three months. I didn't know about this when I effectively became unemployed after being self-employed for a few years and didn't register because I didn't think I was entitled to unemployment benefit - as far as that goes, I was right, but as a result of my ignorance I wasted about five years of potential contributions to my pension entitlement.

sommers: unfortunately even I (Patrick Ott aka Starshollow) am not sure, if you are entitled to unemployment benefits and thus to membership in public health insurance at low unemployment rates. if you have been insured with NHS until now, you can of course as a technically self-employed person opt for voluntary membership with public health insurance. However the costs (based on a min. estimated income of 1240 EUR and change) with around 140-170 EUR might still be a bit excessive for you.

There could also be the following private insurance solutions for you:

1. check this link: https://portal.versicherungsdienste.de/dsw-...oschuere_en.pdf As you can see there, participation in language course (albeit in preparation for university studies but maybe you can swing this one way or the other) would make you eligible and as far as I know, the insurance costs are only around 50.- EUR/month. I don't broker this myself since it is not attractive for a "normal" broker to offer this service too, but you should be able to get all information and service directly from them without language problems.
2. for new arrivals (residence in Germany < 12 month) there is the possibility to go with a special Expat health insurance from a German health insurance company for as little as 76.- EUR/month. While this insurance only covers the basics (in- and outpatient treatment if medically required, no dental, no pregnancy/maernity, virutally no travel coverage abroad) it will fullfill legal requirements for residence permits etc. More information directly from me (click at the link at the bottom of this contribution where it says "disclosure").
3. if you are relatively young and healthy, we can also check for a fully comprehensive private health insurance with a high deductible (>700 EUR/year) and still be within reasonable premium price limits close to option 2. After a while when your income situation changes and if you decide to remain self-employed, you could reduce the excess option to normal levels in exchange for higher premiums... more information fromme or any local independent broker of your choice.
4. should legal requirements for residence permit not be your foremost concern, then an international private health insurance could also be a good solution. here again we can select what coverage is essential for now and what is "nice to have" for later and thus reduce current premium costs to a bearable minimum. More information through me or other broker specialized on Expat needs (normal German broker don't know about international health insurances in general). Several are advertising here on Toytown...

Cheerio