Starshollow

Now this is a surprise... (10 minutes with Elton and you are gay as a maypole!)   Ok, so far the legal situation in Germany was this: if you wanted to get into the German public health insurance as voluntary member (i.e. for instance as a self-employed person), either from the outside of the EU with no prior public/state health insurance coverage within an EU memberstate's public health insurance system or as a person who choose private health insurance in Germany initially and somehow regretted it, you had to become a compulsory member (or dependent family insured member) for 12+ month before you could then continue your public health insurance as a voluntary member in your own right.   In the wake of the new legislation since August 1st, this, too, has changed...and nobody fu...ing noticed, not even me (and I read the fu..ing law) !!! Wow! I just did some online research in some other experts forums for health insurance and stumbled about this info, which then was confirmed by checking out a website of one of the larger public health insurance groups in Germany, BKK: http://www.bkk.de/arbeitgeber/neu-lexikon-sv-und-steuerrecht/?tx_bkklexikon_pi1[bkkl-item]=159909,0 You have to scroll down pretty much to the end to get to the gold nugget of this new legal information:   <h2 class="stw_gld1_head" id="gld3."></h2>     So, what says here is this: do to the new regulation which is supposed to prevent people who were family insured to drop out (because as young folks the exceeded the age limit, for instance), the rule is now that if you have been compulsory insured or family insured and this status ends, you'll become a voluntary member no matter what. And especially (bold in the above quote): you don't have to fulfill any prior insurance time/period.   What does this mean?   Case 1: you are employed with a gross salary over the legal threshold and decided to take on private health insurance because you were young, single and could save a lot of money. Now you meet this girl/guy whom you gonna marry and he/she bring three children into the happy marriage and he/she has no job/income. So far you were in the bad situation that even if he/she already was in public insurance, he/she would have to pay up to 50% of the max premium in public health insurance because half of your income would have counted for computing his/her premium while for each child you guys would have to pay the min contribution of 150+ EUR per month.   Now you only have to convince your boss to reduce your gross salary for 1 month (!!!) under the legal threshold JAEG, by which you become compulsory public insured again (in the past you had to do this for 12 months, which is a bit more complicated and also means more loss of income). After the one month, you can go back to your prior salary but still remain in the public health insurance as voluntary member. And add your wife and kids for free as dependent family members...   Case 2: you have been self-employed in Germany and with private health insurance. Now you only need to find someone for 1+ month for an employment with compulsory public health insurance (midi-job or more) and after that you can go back to being self-employed while keeping this public health insurance as a voluntary member for all it is worth.   Case 3: you come as a self-employed person from outside the EU with no prior public health insurance in an EU memberstate. Therefore you can't enter the public health insurance in Germany as a compulsory member. All you need now is to find someone to hire you (Visa permitting, of course) as an employee for 1+ month and you have every right to stay in the public health insurance system later as a voluntary member.   Case 4: you have been privately insured and are over 55 years old. Not even employment gets you back into public health insurance anymore. But if you become a family/dependent insured member thru your spouse while having no income at all higher than 385 EUR p.m. for just one month, you can afterwards continue to stay in the public health isnurance even as a voluntary member in your own right when you work and earn money again.   this will help solve a lot of problems for people who have a good reason to want to go back into public health insurance. It will. unfortunately, also invite more abuse of the system, because now it is much easier to contemplate going with private health insurance (and save money for yourself while opting out of the social welfare system) because the way back if your situation changes is much easier. But it is the law...make the best out of it. And find a good professional and independent advisor to help you with that, because it will take a long time till the last employee in a public health isnurance has learned and understood this.   Cheerio