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When a person moves back to Germany after being abroad in the EU (e.g. Netherlands) long enough to have to insure themselves there and not be insured in Germany anymore, what determines if you can be insured in the statutory health insurance again or whether you can choose or have to be privately insured when coming back, before you take on any work again?

Reading the laws like SGB V $5 and $6 and similar for when you are required and allowed to be insured statutory or privately didn't lead me to an understanding how that relates to when you were not insured in Germany at all for a while and beginning insurance again.

Different people said it depends on whether the health insurance abroad was private or not (but how is this determined, e.g. the Netherlands is not a clear case for me since it is a mandatory insurance with benefits defined by the state but the insurers might be private? Is there some EU law that defines this?).
But others said that if you were insured with the statutory health insurance in Germany the most part of the last 5 years, then it doesn't matter if you were privately insured abroad before (relating to Vorversicherungszeit). They were maybe relating it to SGB V $9 (1) 1 though I am not sure if there is a similar thing somewhere else in the law. I am also unsure if there are any time limits / deadlines that change the situation, as reading about the topic, I sometimes saw time limits in which you are allowed to choose the type of insurance, but not afterward.

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  • Personally, in the hypothetical situation, I would request the statutory health insurance provider, where I was previously insured, to take me back and tell them I was insured by a statutory provider in The Netherlands. Only if they don't agree, your question becomes relevant. Unfortunately, the answer to your question really depends on specifics.
    – Roland
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 7:30
  • Let's assume they say it is a private provider. My question kind of is where people are even getting the information what is a private or statutory provider, is there some EU law, or can you just look it up somewhere? And more generally, it isn't clear to me which paragraph even applies if I want to understand the situation coming back from abroad in the actual text of the law; is there some interpretation of the normal law (when only living in Germany) or is there something about moving / quitting the insurance and coming back that I don't see?
    – xuiqzy
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 11:22

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