Health insurance


https://youtu.be/e_WDA44iqZ8

This film explains in Dutch how you are insured if you live in the Netherlands and work in Germany.

Legal and private health insurance

If you work in Germany, you are insured against health costs in Germany. Germany has different types of health insurance: Legal health insurance (compulsory or voluntary) and private health insurance. As an employee, you are compulsorily insured if your gross salary does not exceed EUR 64,350 per year (2021). If you earn more, you can choose between voluntary insurance with a legal health insurance and private insurance.

Compulsory or voluntary insurance with a statutory health insurance

A statutory health insurance fund in Germany is the authority that regulates your health insurance, where your employer pays social security contributions and pays sickness allowance if you are ill for more than 6 weeks.

If you are compulsorily or voluntarily insured, you can register with a health insurance. Here you will find an overview of the German health insurance schemes (attention: some only operate regionally). You apply for form S1 at this health insurance company. With this form, you can register with the CZ in the Netherlands for the so-called Verdragspolis as a so-called contracted person. As a cross-border worker, you can then claim health care in the Netherlands through this health insurer. This also applies to your partner (married or with a registered partnership) without an income of their own and possibly to your minor children. You will then be entitled to the same care in the Netherlands as someone who is insured in the Netherlands. The
difference is that you do not have to pay a contribution to the CZ. The only contribution you may have to pay is for supplementary insurance and costs under the eigen risico [deductible]. You can find more information about the Verdragspolis on the CZ website. You can also register here. You can then use German health care as usual in Germany with a card from your health insurance fund and Dutch health care as usual in the Netherlands with the card from the CZ.

For health insurance for family members, please refer to the relevant section Family – Medical expenses

Sickness allowance

The health insurance will also pay sickness allowance if you are ill for more than 6 weeks. Your employer will continue to pay your wages for the first 6 weeks. The sickness allowance is 70% of your gross salary.

Private health insurance

The premium for private insurance depends on the agreed benefits, your age, state of health and gender, and may increase over the years. Family members can be covered under certain conditions if additional premiums are paid.

The disadvantages of private health insurance are:

  • You cannot use health care in the Netherlands through CZ’s Vertragspolice [contract policy]. This is a major disadvantage, especially for Wlz [the Dutch Care Insurance Act], because there is no private insurance for this.
  • You are not entitled to sickness allowance, instead you can take out a so-called daily sickness allowance insurance.
  • It may be difficult to find a German insurer who will cover you because you do not live in Germany.
  • You will need to discuss with your private health insurer how to settle your Dutch health costs and which costs will be reimbursed.

You may have to prove that you have health insurance outside Germany. You can ask your private health insurer for a certificate to this effect.

Health insurance supplement (zorgtoeslag)

If you have health insurance in Germany, you are no longer entitled to the health insurance supplement (zorgtoeslag) in the Netherlands. It is up to you to stop the zorgtoeslag. If your partner is insured in the Netherlands and your joint income is below the income limit, your partner is entitled to half of the supplement.

Excerpt web seminar on health insurance in Germany

At the end of 2020, a GrensInfoPunkt organised a web seminar on working in Germany. One of the topics discussed was health insurance when you live in the Netherlands and work in Germany. You can watch the relevant excerpt here:

https://youtu.be/xF293IMp3EI