Student Health Insurance in Germany: KVdS Rules, Costs and Enrollment

1. The Document Your University Actually Wants

Enrollment offices do not want a policy certificate, a PDF from an insurer abroad, or a printout of your travel cover. Since January 2022 every state-recognised German university runs an electronic reporting procedure, and the paper route is gone. Your health fund transmits a message with the reporting code M10 directly to the university, confirming your insurance status. No M10, no matriculation.

The detail that catches out international students: only German statutory health funds can issue an M10 message. A private incoming policy, an EHIC card, or a home-country insurer cannot produce one, no matter how valid the cover itself is. Even students who are legitimately exempt from public insurance need a German Krankenkasse to send the M10 confirming that exemption.

So the sequence matters. Contact a German statutory fund before you arrive, or at the latest in your first days here. Give them your student ID number and the university's sender number, and they push the message across. Funds handle this within a few working days, but October is their peak season, so a request filed in late September competes with tens of thousands of others.

---

2. Who Qualifies for Student Public Insurance (KVdS)

Student insurance under §5 Abs. 1 Nr. 9 SGB V is compulsory insurance at a subsidised fixed price, not a discount you negotiate. You qualify when you are enrolled at a state or state-recognised university and you have not yet completed your 30th year of life.

That is the whole test in 2026. An older rule also cut students off after the 14th Fachsemester, and you will still find it repeated on plenty of advice sites, but the legislature removed that limit on 1 January 2020. Long degrees no longer push you out of student insurance. Your 30th birthday does.

The age limit bends in defined cases. If you reached university entrance qualification through the second-chance route (Zweiter Bildungsweg), or if illness, disability, or caring duties delayed your studies, the fund reviews an extension individually. Ask in writing and expect to document the reason.

---

3. What KVdS Costs in 2026

The contribution ignores your income. It is calculated from the BAföG reference figure of EUR 855 a month, which keeps the price identical whether you tutor on the side or have no income at all.

| Component | Rate | Monthly amount | |---|---|---| | Health insurance base | 10.22% of EUR 855 | €87.38 | | Fund supplement (Zusatzbeitrag) | 2.69% at TK / 3.29% at Barmer | EUR 23.00 / EUR 28.13 | | Long-term care, childless from age 23 | 4.2% | €35.91 | | Long-term care, under 23 or with a child | 3.6% | €30.78 |

Put together, a childless student aged 23 or over pays about EUR 146.29 a month at TK and EUR 151.42 at Barmer. Under 23, the TK figure drops to roughly EUR 141.16. The base rate of €87.38 has not moved since the 2024/25 winter semester, so the only real variable between funds is the Zusatzbeitrag.

That spread is worth about EUR 62 a year between the two funds above. Service quality in English matters more than five euros a month for most international students, so weigh both.

Barmer sits at the higher end of the supplement range but runs its own English student desk. If you want to compare public funds beyond the student rate, our guide to the best public health insurance in Germany covers service, apps, and reimbursement in detail.

---

4. Free Cover Through Your Parents (Familienversicherung)

If a parent is insured in the German statutory system, you may stay on their policy at no cost until you turn 25. Your own income must stay at or below €565 a month, or €603 if you earn it through a Minijob.

Two points expats get wrong here. The parent must be in the German statutory system, so a parent insured in Poland or Italy does not open this door. And at 25 the free ride ends, with narrow exceptions for voluntary service periods and disability. When it ends you move into KVdS and start paying the rates in section 3.

---

5. Over 30, Language Course, or Studienkolleg

Three groups sit outside student insurance and pay considerably more attention to their options.

Students past 30. Compulsory student insurance ends. You can stay in the statutory system as a voluntary member, but the fund then calculates your contribution from your actual income against a minimum assessment base, which typically runs well above the student rate. Private cover becomes genuinely competitive at this point, especially for doctoral candidates without employment.

Language course and Studienkolleg participants. You are not matriculated at a university yet, so KVdS is closed to you by law. Statutory funds cannot admit you even if you ask. You need a private incoming policy for the preparation period, and you switch into KVdS once you enroll in the degree programme itself.

Doctoral candidates. It depends on your status. Enrolled and under 30 keeps you in KVdS. Employed on a research contract makes you an ordinary employee with income-based contributions. A stipend without enrollment usually pushes you towards voluntary or private cover.

For the incoming period, buy a policy written for that purpose rather than a travel plan. Travel health insurance often excludes exactly the situations a longer stay produces, and embassies increasingly reject it.

---

6. The Exemption Form That Locks the Door

Students can apply to be released from compulsory insurance under §8 SGB V and take private cover instead. The application runs through a statutory fund and must reach them within three months of your insurance obligation starting.

Understand what you are signing. The exemption cannot be withdrawn. It holds for your entire course of study, and it binds every other statutory fund too, so changing Krankenkasse later does not reset it. If your circumstances change in your third semester and public insurance would now suit you better, the door stays shut until that degree ends.

It does not automatically extend to a later, separate degree, unless the new programme follows on seamlessly or after a break of no more than a month.

Private cover can work well for a student who is over 30, healthy, and confident about staying in it. For a 22-year-old choosing it to save thirty euros a month, the trade is usually poor, because premiums rise with age while the student rate never does. Read our public versus private health insurance comparison before you sign an exemption.

---

7. Your Enrollment Checklist

1. Pick a German statutory fund before you travel, or in your first week. TK and Barmer both run English-language student desks.
2. Send them your enrolment details including the university's sender number, and request the M10 message.
3. Confirm the M10 arrived with the enrollment office rather than assuming. This is the single most common delay.
4. Set up the payment mandate. Contributions are due monthly and start with your enrolment, not your first lecture.
5. Diarise your 30th birthday one semester ahead, and ask your fund what your contribution becomes.
6. If you are on a language course, arrange incoming cover for the preparation period and plan the switch to KVdS at matriculation.

Once your insurance is settled, the blocked account and student bank account sit next on the list, and our guide to studying in Germany walks through the enrollment sequence end to end.