Health Insurance

I. General information

Students in Germany are required to provide the university with a proof of health insurance. You could either opt for German public health insurance or decide to keep your private insurance from Germany or any other country.

The German public health insurance covers you in all cases and emergencies. If you opt for private health insurance or decide to keep your home country insurance, you will need to get a dispensation of the obligation to insure. EU citizens (Cyprus – only the EU part of the country), as well as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey and Tunis, can keep their home health insurance (form E111 or the EU health insurance card only), as it is equivalent to the German public health insurance.

Any decision for or against the German public health insurance / EU health insurance must be made within the first three months of your studies in Germany and it cannot be revised during the whole duration of your studies. If you don’t make a decision before this deadline, you are legally required to insure with a German public health insurance. There are no exceptions to this regulation. This regulation does not apply if you have a EU health insurance (E111 or EU insurance card) and you want to switch to German public health insurance or vice versa.

You must retain (and keep paying for) your health insurance even if you are on a leave of absence or on a study abroad.

II. Health insurance for your student visa application

You can apply for the German public health insurance in advance and use the confirmation when applying for your student visa with a German embassy in your home country. Fill out the form and send it to the Health Insurance representative. You will receive a confirmation that you have been accepted. Please print out this confirmation and provide it as proof of health insurance to the German embassy. Two German public health insurance companies are present on campus. They are identical in price and coverage:

Health partner of Jacobs University Bremen - Techniker Krankenkasse (TK)

Further provider - Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK)

III. Public vs. private health insurance

Services
 Public Health Insurance Companies
 Private Health Insurance Companies
monthly costs ~ 77.90 € for all companies
 depends on the company
health insurance card  yes  no
medical costs covered (Germany)  fully limited
medical costs covered (EU)  fully limited
medicine costs covered yes, only 5 € per perscription no or limited
dental costs covered fully very limited
acceptance everywhere in Germany/EU doctors, hospitals or dentists might refuse treatment
all charges paid  directly by the HI company you might need to pay first and search for refund from the private HI company
Jacobs University support not required, because medical costs are fully covered no, Jacobs University will not (re)fund medical costs