Family insurance in the statutory health insurance; application
If you have statutory health insurance, you can insure your children and your spouse or partner free of charge under certain conditions. You submit the application to your statutory health insurance fund.
Description
As a member of a statutory health insurance fund, you can insure family members free of charge under certain conditions. You apply for family insurance for your dependents to your statutory health insurance fund.
You can co-insure the following family members:
- Your spouse or registered partner, if he or she has little or no income of his or her own.
- your children up to certain age limits,
- grandchildren and stepchildren living in your household or for whose support you provide, as well as foster children.
If you are insured as parents in different statutory health insurance funds, you can choose where you insure your child or children as a family.
Prerequisites
You can apply for family insurance if
- you have statutory health insurance
- your family members live in Germany
your spouse or civil partner
- is not self-employed on a full-time basis or is not insured by law himself/herself, for example, as an employee or pensioner;
- is not privately insured, for example, as an employee, civil servant or retired civil servant;
- is not exempt from compulsory health insurance and
- has no or only a low income. The exact income limit is set by the legislature each year.
Your children are
- under 18 years of age or
- under 23 years of age and not yet working, or
- Under 25 years old and still attending school, studying or completing unpaid school-based vocational training.
Children with a disability can remain permanently covered by family insurance if they cannot support themselves even as adults.
Your grandchildren as well as your stepchildren can be covered by family insurance within the age limits mentioned above, if they
- live in your household or
- you are mainly responsible for their subsistence.
- Foster children living permanently in a domestic community also belong to the group of children who can be insured as family members.
If your spouse or partner is not covered by statutory insurance but, for example, by private insurance, you may only insure joint children free of charge if
- your partner's salary is below the statutory annual salary limit, or
- your partner earns less than you.
Procedure
You can submit the application for family insurance by mail and - for many statutory health insurance funds - in person at the office or online.
- Fill out the application form of your statutory health insurance company and submit it to the health insurance company together with the required documents. There are usually different forms, depending on whether you are applying for the first time or reviewing the requirements.
- The health insurance company will check whether you are entitled to family insurance and will inform you of the result.
Deadlines
There are no deadlines for you.
Processing time
Processing normally takes about 1 to 4 working days.
For rapid processing and decision-making, your health insurance fund must be provided with the necessary information and any required documents in a complete and meaningful manner.
The health insurance company decides on applications promptly, adhering to the statutory processing time limit in order to protect patients' rights.
Please note that the processing time indicated is an average value for all health insurance funds. It may vary in individual cases.
The exact processing time also depends on the complexity of the individual case and may be longer accordingly. The same applies if documents or records are sent to you or your health insurer by mail.
Remedy
- Objection
- Action before the social court
Links to more information
Status: 18.07.2022
Responsible for editing: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit
- Online transactions, Bavaria-wide
- Online transactions, locally limited
- Prefillable Form, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, locally limited
- Fees, Bavaria-wide
- Fees, locally limited