Health insurance
All German and foreign students who wish to study in Germany need to have adequate health insurance. In order to be able to enroll you as a student at our university, we need the electronic notification of the health insurance company to the university as proof of health insurance (further information below).
Travel insurance won’t be recognized as valid health insurance! Travel insurance might be valid for your visa but will not be recognized as valid health insurance for study purposes in Germany.
Information on health insurance
If there is a social insurance agreement (Sozialversicherungsabkommen) between Germany and your home country (including the member states of the European Union and the European Economic Area) the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is accepted.
If you would like to enrol with your insurance from your European home country, please contact any statutory health insurance company (e.g. Barmer, DAK, Techniker Krankenkasse, etc.) and ask for an electronic notification of your insurance status to the HNE Eberswalde. The health insurance company needs the sender number of the HNE Eberswalde for this: H0002016.
Sometimes private health insurances from other countries are also recognised. Therefore, contact any statutory health insurance in Germany, which must check whether sufficient insurance cover exists in order to then be able to confirm the exemption from the statutory health insurance obligation. Please ask also for the electronic notification of your insurance status to the HNE Eberswalde. The health insurance company needs the sender number of the HNE Eberswalde for this: H0002016.
However, once you have been exempted from statutory health insurance, it is no longer possible to switch to a statutory health insurance company for the duration of your studies in Germany.
Enrolment without electronic notification by the health insurance company is not possible.
If you are not insured with a health insurance company recognised in Germany, you must take out insurance here. You can choose between several statutory and private health insurance companies. We generally recommend taking out statutory health insurance. Below you will find an overview of the different health insurances.
Statutory health insurance
German statutory health insurance companies are obliged to provide discounted student rates for their insurance cover for students until they reach 30 years of age or until the end of their 14th subject-related semester. The membership fee is currently ~ 120 Euros per month. Please be aware that the contract duration is set at a minimum of 12 months (only applies to full-time students).
After complete registration, please ask the health insurance company to send an electronic notification of your insurance status to our university. The health insurance company needs the sender number of the HNE Eberswalde for this: H0002016.
Enrolment without electronic notification by the health insurance company is not possible.
Private health insurance
Private health insurance could be a good option if you are over 30 years old. Then you can no longer get statutory health insurance at the affordable student rate. You can still purchase the public insurance, but at a higher rate. Please inform yourself well about the offers of private health insurances.
If you choose the private insurance, please be aware of the following:
- Private insurance can be very affordable in the first year, but fees rise with every passing year.
- Private health insurances in the student tariff do not necessarily cover all benefits and do not cover costs for pre-existing conditions. Read the contract terms and conditions very thoroughly.
- You must pay all medical bills in advance and can later submit the receipts to the insurance company for reimbursement. If you have statutory insurance, the doctor's office bills the health insurance company directly.
- Once you have chosen private health insurance, you cannot return to public insurance during your studies.
- If your contract is time-limited and you need expensive treatment during the insurance period, the private health insurance company may refuse to extend the insurance period. Therefore, make sure that you already sign the contract for the entire duration of your studies.
If you would like to enrol with a private health insurance, please contact any statutory health insurance company (e.g. Barmer, DAK, Techniker Krankenkasse, etc.) and ask for an electronic notification of your insurance status to the HNE Eberswalde. The health insurance company needs the sender number of the HNE Eberswalde for this: H0002016.
Enrolment without electronic notification by the health insurance company is not possible.
Please note that statutory health insurance companies only send the electronic confirmation if your private health insurance offers insurance coverage equivalent to a German student health insurance. Only then you can be exempted from the statutory insurance obligation.
According to German law (199a SGB V), health insurance companies and universities are jointly responsible for reporting the health insurance status of students. This means that paper notifications are no longer accepted.
If you are insured with a statutory health insurance fund at the time of enrollment, please contact your health insurance company and give them our sender number (H0002016) and they will inform us about your insurance status.
If you are insured with a private health insurance company at the time of enrollment, please contact any public health insurance company and give them our sender number (H0002016) and they will inform us of your private insurance status.
