Health Insurance

As a general rule, employees—that is, those in dependent employment—in Germany are required to have statutory health insurance. You are free to choose your health insurance provider. There are numerous comparison websites for health insurance plans online, so we cannot recommend one here, but a quick search for “health insurance comparison” in the search engine of your choice will help you find what you’re looking for.

You should inform your employer of the name of your health insurance provider before starting your job.

For employed individuals, the insured person and the employer each pay half of the premiums from the employee’s wages—currently 14.6% of the gross wage each. In addition, there is a supplementary premium that varies by health insurance provider, typically ranging between 2% and 4.5%, which is paid solely by the employee.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

If an employee falls ill, the employer generally continues to pay the employee’s wages initially (continued payment of wages in the event of illness—see “Labor Law”). Subsequently, individuals with statutory health insurance are entitled to sick pay as part of their medical treatment if they are unable to work or if they are receiving inpatient treatment at a hospital (hospital treatment) or at a preventive care or rehabilitation facility (spa treatments) at the expense of the health insurance provider. Sick pay amounts to 70% of the gross income earned prior to the illness, up to a maximum of 90% of net income. Contributions to pension and unemployment insurance must be paid on sick pay. Some employers pay a supplement to the sick pay, thereby making up the difference to the net wages. In the event of incapacity for work due to the same illness, sick pay is limited to a maximum of 78 weeks within a three-year period. At the start of a new three-year period, a person is entitled to sick pay again for the same illness if, in the intervening period, the insured person entitled to sick pay was not incapacitated for work due to this illness for at least six months and was either employed or available to the employment agency.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Parents with statutory health insurance can apply for child sickness benefits for 15 workdays per year for each child covered by statutory health insurance; single parents can apply for 30 days. If there are multiple children, the entitlement per parent is limited to no more than 35 days; for single parents, it is limited to no more than 70 workdays.

Child sickness benefits generally amount to 90 percent of the lost net pay. Parents apply for them through their health insurance provider.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)