Health insurance without Heinz Hoenig: What to do if you are not insured?

Health insurance without Heinz Hoenig: What to do if you are not insured?

Heinz Hoenig, aged 72, is currently in a coma and is about to undergo heart surgery. Unfortunately, he doesn't have health insurance. This leads to the serious problem that without health insurance you cannot receive medical care or you have to bear the costs yourself. In Hoenig's case, the costs amount to around 90,000 euros, as his wife Annika Hoenig reported to RTL. She has been fighting for three years to get her husband included in health insurance.

It is important for people without health insurance to seek coverage immediately. The consumer advice center (VZ) states that you will be assigned to the system with which you last had health insurance, whether statutory or private. If you have never been insured, the assignment depends on your profession: employees are legally insured, while self-employed people and freelancers are usually privately insured.

In order to be reinstated in statutory health insurance, the last insurance company with which you were registered must accept you again. If this no longer exists, you are free to choose a new health insurance company. During the period without health insurance, premium debts can arise, even if medical services were never used. It should be noted that these must be paid additionally and may incur costs.

For people who are voluntarily insured by law, there is the option of retroactively reducing unpaid late payment surcharges to one percent. If these are compulsorily insured, the monthly additional payment for 2024 can be reduced to around 72 euros. An important requirement here is that no medical services were used during the time without insurance or that reimbursement was waived.