Legal Affairs
Mandatory health insurance for the self-employed
The German Statutory Health Insurance Increased Competition Act (GKV-WSG) made all citizens subject to mandatory health insurance. This also affects more than 32,000 self-employed individuals who do not currently have any health insurance. However, this mandatory health insurance also applies to people who are not compulsorily ensured with statutory health insurance for other reasons and who have not obtained other insurance. This may include employees with an income above the mandatory limit for statutory health insurance.
In principle, individuals will have to return to the insurance system under which they were last insured. For example, if a self-employed individual was dismissed from a health insurance fund due to failure to pay insurance contributions, since 1 April 2007 the fund has had to accept them back. People who have never had any insurance must obtain insurance using the system assigned to them according to their last employment.
In any case, self-employed individuals who have never had mandatory health insurance have access to private health insurance. This was at what was called the standard tariff. At the same time, the standard tariff was converted into what is called the basic tariff. Contributions are based on gender and age (without further risk premiums) and may not exceed the average maximum contribution for statutory health insurance.
Further information on mandatory health insurance is available from the Federal Ministry of Health.