FAQ on health insurance
If you have an employment contract the following obtains: According to Regulation (EC) 883/04 you are obliged to have statutory social security and you must therefore join the statutory health insurance scheme in the country in which you are employed, i.e. Germany. You can only apply to remain in the health insurance scheme in your own country in exceptional cases, such as when the duration of the stay in Germany is restricted and legally-recognised relations exist to an employer at home. This might take the form of leave of absence with the right to return to a job in your own country.
If you have a fellowship you are not required to join the health insurance scheme in Germany. But according to Art. 193, para. 3 of the German Insurance Contract Act ("Versicherungsvertragsgesetz"), as of 1 January 2009, every person residing in Germany is obliged to obtain insurance from a health insurance provider that is authorised in Germany. We therefore recommend that fellowship recipients obtain health insurance cover from a private German health insurance.
European health insurance cards issued by Greek health insurance schemes are only valid for a temporary stay in Germany (holidays, business trip or job search). And they only cover essential medical provision at the doctor, dentist or in hospital and necessary treatment for existing or chronic illnesses. It becomes invalid as soon as you are obliged to pay social security contributions in Germany according to Regulation (EC) 883/04, such as when you are employed by a German research establishment.
When new, private health insurance policies are taken out they usually exclude previously diagnosed prior illness and impose waiting periods for pregnancy treatments, as otherwise their pricing system would break down. In principle this is also the case for temporary health insurance policies for trips abroad that do not require a health check up.
Insofar as the specific circumstances allow, the following possibilities exist for resolving such situations:
- continuation of the existing private health insurance policy with the addition of an international option
- continuation of membership in the statutory health insurance scheme in the employee's own country (if the employee is on a posting)
- joining a statutory health insurance scheme in the host country, whereby this usually presupposes an employment relationship in that country.
Where an existing private or statutory health insurance policy is continued, prior illness or waiting periods are irrelevant, and when taking out a new policy under a host country's statutory health insurance scheme, in most countries cover is available from day one without waiting periods, even in cases of prior illness. However care should be taken in Belgium where even for a statutory health insurance scheme there is usually a waiting period of one year.
As a host university you should make the researcher aware that there is usually no health insurance cover in the case of prior illness or an existing pregnancy. This will help you to avoid any potential liability due to insufficient clarification. It is then up to the researchers themselves whether or not they declare any prior illness.
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