Can someone explain this to me?

8 comments

1. >but I have to pay around 300€ for the month 04.2024 in which i wasnt versichert.. but why? I didnt go to the doctor and they havent told me any of this till now.

   Because having health insurance is mandatory in germany. It doesn’t matter if you had to visit a doctor.

2. As the other commenter said: Health insurance is mandatory in Germany. Since you weren’t entitled for Familienversicherung anymore, they automatically enrolled you in a different coverage program that is for people with unclear status and requires you to pay the maximum possible rate for public insurance.

   What you could have done was to declare yourself unemployed with Arbeitsagentur for the one month and have them pay for your health insurance.

   Since you didn’t do anything but were still covered in case anything would’ve happened, you have to pay for the month.

   Your roommate was just lucky that she didn’t get caught somehow or unlucky in case she would have had a medical emergency during that time because that would have been a real hassle to sort out.

3. A general tip for living in Germany: Always declar yourself unemployed at Arbeitsagentur when you have no work. It does not matter why (you dont want to work, you were fired, you quit etc). Also no matter how short it is (7 days, 14 days, 1month, 4 months…)

   Because you loss all social privileges in Germany (like health insurance) when you dont do it.

   The letter is to inform you, that you are being from 01.04 in a status of a “beitragspflichtige Krankenversichung” (self-payed health insurance)

   The latter is only a little late.

   When you start to work (What you did on 13.05), then you are no longer a self-payer.

4. When did you finish ausbildung? When did you start working? Which timeframe have you been familienversichert?

5. If you lose your job, you will be insured for one more month without payment. Maybe, this was the case for your roommate?

   About you, the situation is unclear. Usually, your employer pays half the insurance. The other half is deducted from your salary, as you can see on your payslip.

   If the insurance was not fully paid, they ask you to clarify, and finally ask you to pay.

   Also important: if you registered for unemployment benefits, the insurance will be paid automatically.

   If you did not, because you live from your savings or whatever, the insurance does not know your income situation, assumes a high income, and requests the maximum amount to be paid by you. You can inform them that you have no income at all. In that case, you have to pay the minimum of about 200€ per month.

6. Your roommate will eventually get the bill for that missed month. Insurances are slow, but from time to time will check over the entire insurance history for missed months, and then catch up on bills with interest. It’s always smarter to pay.

   With that being said, yes, you have to pay this month.

   I will elaborate a little more on what others already stated to get you to understand the situation better, and show you your options.

   For a start, as others stated, health insurance is mandatory for everyone with permanent residence in germany. This means that you have to be insured, and an insurance has to insure you and continue your insurance and bill you even if you do not work or have no income at all. As your family insurance ended, you would have needed to approach your insurance and work out what your options are. In all regularity, when you are unemployed you go and report unemployed to the Arbeitsagentur or Job center and the social care system does pay health insurance for you; if you do not receive benifits or can not receive benifits, you still have to be insured, and still have to pay for it. In such a case, you insurance automatically switches you to a volunatary public health insurance type, and this switch is what they also talk about when they tell you about “umwandlung” here. If someone loses their job or is removed from family insurance, the insruance automatically puts you on this income based model. By law, if not provided income information, they will bill you the may of around 900 Euros, but if your provide income data for the time, they will only bill you according to your income but a minimum of around 240 Euros a month. You can not avoid paying that in any case.

   It doesn’t matter if you make use of the insurance or not, it has to be paid. You are mandated by law to do so. It does not matter what your current status is, and if you pay your normal percentage from your salary right now in form of a standard health insurance, the debt remains, and they will keep on billing you with interest until it is paid.

   What you can do is approach them for a payment in smaller installments. The positive side off insurance being mandatory is that they also need to offer you choices and means to pay, and installments are part of that. So just write them that you need to do this in smaller installments and pay it. Not paying is not an option.

   Furthermore, for the future, always report unemployment to your health insurance ahead of time. If you do not apply for Jobcenter or Arbeitsamt, and they do not pay your insurance, you still will be switched to voluntary public insurance, and here it matters to share income information and general information about your situation in time to avoid debt. Health insurance is a very powerful instiution in terms of debt, and can eventually seize your salary or ruine your Credit if you do not find solutions.

7. It is mandatory to have health insurance. As in, it is quite literally illegal not to have one. If you didn’t have one for a month, they will just insure you retrospectively.

8. My insurance covered one month when I changed employes. I wanted to be free for a month, before my new job started, asked the insurance and they confirmed to cover 4 weeks. Didn’t need to go to Arbeitsagentur (didn’t get money either, but that was not the plan).

   I’m not sure if that’s the same case when your Familienversicherung ends. What I used to do then: I signed in as a mathematician student (biggest joke of my life), so I just needed to pay 150 Euro instead of 300.