AOK Sachsen-Anhalt is a regional health insurance provider for Sachsen-Anhalt.

Membership requirements:

• You live in Sachsen-Anhalt or
• You work or study in Sachsen-Anhalt or
• Your spouse or registered life partner is insured with AOK Sachsen-Anhalt or
• Your last statutory insurance was AOK Sachsen-Anhalt/BKK Sachsen-Anhalt.

To switch your health insurance to AOK, it's sufficient to either complete an online membership application or submit a membership application in paper. Starting January 1, 2021, we electronically create and transmit the termination notice to your previous health insurance on your behalf.

If you're currently:

• starting a new job or apprenticeship,
• starting your studies, or
• starting to receive unemployment benefits (Arbeitslosengeld or Bürgergeld),

please take note of information on whether switching is possible without binding periods or notice periods. We need your membership application within 14 days of the start of your insurance obligation.

We're happy to welcome you as a member.

For family members who are covered under family insurance and want to switch the health insurance company with the insured person, we need a completed and signed application form for family insurance. We'll notify your current health insurance provider about the termination of family coverage.

For more information about the application for family insurance, please refer to the section: Can I include family members in my AOK Sachsen-Anhalt health insurance?

For all statutorily insured individuals: if you decide to switch your health insurance provider during an ongoing policy, you're generally bound to that health insurance for 12 months. Afterwards, you can choose a new health insurance company. Your choice declaration (e.g., in form of membership application) becomes effective by the end of the second month, following the month in which you made your choice.

Please keep this in mind when indicating your desired start date for your insurance coverage.

Example 1

You've been continuously insured with your current health insurance company for over 12 months and declare your wish to switch to AOK Sachsen-Anhalt on July 10, via membership application. In this case, your membership ends on September 30, and starting October 1, you'll be a member of AOK Sachsen-Anhalt. 

Example 2

You've been insured with your current health insurance provider since April 1 of the previous year. Therefore, your membership can be terminated earliest on March 31 of this year. To become a member of AOK Sachsen-Anhalt on April 1, your membership application must reach us by January 31 at the latest to adhere to the period of notice for termination/switching deadline. 

Tip: Please also pay attention to information about special termination rights and immediate health insurance switch possibilities.

If your health insurance company introduces or increases an additional contribution (a surcharge), you have a special termination right to cancel your membership. The binding period of 12 months is exempted. The choice declaration needs to reach AOK by the end of the month for which the new surcharge is due, at the latest. Your choice declaration becomes effective at the end of the second following month.

Example

You've been insured with your current health insurance provider since April 1 of this year, which informs you about the introduction of an additional surcharge starting January 1 next year. In this case, you can exercise your special termination right, even if you haven't been insured with this health insurance company for 12 months yet. You can declare your switch of health insurance by January 31, at the latest, so you can become a member of AOK starting April 1.

Note that the health insurance company is obligated to inform you at least one month before the first due date of the new surcharge and point out your special termination right. 

Yes, under certain conditions, an immediate switch of health insurance is possible.

Right to immediate health insurance choice means that a person with this right can select a new health insurance company without termination notice and without considering the duration of membership with the previous health insurance.

Case 1:

Membership in a statutory health insurance is interrupted for at least one day (so-called "gap cases").

Example of a "gap case":

You exercise an employment that requires compulsory insurance until October 15 of the year. You're starting a new job that requires compulsory insurance on October 17. On October 16, you're covered by the family insurance of your spouse. With the new employment beginning October 17, you can immediately become a member of the AOK. Your choice declaration must have reached AOK within 14 days after October 17.

Case 2:

Your current insurance ends by law, and a new obligation for compulsory insurance follows immediately.

Example of right to immediate choice:

An employee terminates their employment which requires compulsory insurance by October 15 of the year. On October 16, he/she starts a new employment which requires compulsory insurance. In this case, they have the right to immediately choose a health insurance company. All binding periods, including those from supplementary insurances, no longer apply. The choice declaration must reach AOK within 14 days after October 16.

A right to immediate insurance choice is also possible, if a voluntary health insurance ends by law and a new membership immediately follows.  So, it doesn't depend on the insurance status, only the end of membership by law is the deciding factor.

Within two weeks of becoming obligated to compulsory insurance, you need to choose a new health insurance by filling out the membership application (choice declaration) with a new health insurance provider. A termination with your current health insurance is not necessary. You provide the certificate of your new membership to the relevant reporting institution, e.g., your employer.

If you have a supplementary insurance, you're committed to it for either three years (36 months) or one year, depending on the type of tariff. You're only able to switch to AOK after the binding period.

If your health insurance company introduces or increases a surcharge, you have a special termination right, excluding participants of a supplementary sickness benefit tariffs.

Tip: Please pay attention to information on special termination right. 

For instance, if you change your employer, you have an immediate right to choose your health insurance company. In this case, all binding periods, including those from supplementary insurances, are exempted.

As a student, you're usually covered through family insurance until your 25th birthday, unless you become compulsorily insured due to exceeding the defined income threshold. After the family insurance ends, you can choose your own health insurance, and switch to AOK.

You're entitled to student insurance until the age of 30. Afterwards, you can be voluntarily insured as a student. 

Tip: The student insurance can be extended, e.g., through voluntary military or federal volunteer work.

Generally, there's a health insurance obligation for students. At the beginning of your studies, you can apply for an exemption from being compulsorily insured. The application must be submitted 3 months after the start of the studies, and you must prove an alternative entitlement to health coverage in cases of sickness - e.g., by obtaining a private health insurance.

The legal foundations for the exemption from health insurance obligation are stipulated in §8 SGB V. The exemption applies for the duration of the studies.

However, this decision should be carefully considered because it entails some disadvantages:

• The exemption can't be revoked for the entire duration of the studies, unless the studies are interrupted to take up a new course of study at a later date.
• The exemption results in unavailability of the option for free family insurance during the studies in a statutory health insurance (e.g., through a spouse in case of marriage).
• For students, the entitlement to parental financial aid usually ends by the age of 25. Consequently, the costs in private health insurance also increase with the end of the entitlement to parental financial aid.
• Returning to statutory health insurance after the studies, is usually only possible through compulsory health insurance, because due to the lack of previous insurance time, joining voluntary insurance is not possible.

Once you, as an apprentice, receive remuneration, you're no longer covered under family insurance and you can choose your health insurance provider within 14 days after the start of your apprenticeship.

Your contribution will be calculated based on your apprentice remuneration.

Important: If your monthly gross income doesn't exceed 325 €, your employer will cover your contributions fully.

Certainly. In your online application for membership, you'll be asked whether you have family members, who you'd like to include in your health insurance. If you answer "yes", we'll send you the application form for family insurance. Please complete the form in addition and send us the signed original document by mail.

In statutory health insurance, children can be covered by family insurance, if one of the following criteria applies:

• until the age of 18.
• until the age of 23, provided there's no employment.
• until the age of 25, if they're pursuing school education, studying, or participating in unpaid Voluntary Social Year, Voluntary Ecological Year (Act to Promote Youth Voluntary Services) or federal Volunteers Service (Act on the Federal Voluntary Service).
• beyond the age of 25, if they're pursuing school education or studying. An additional requirement is that this education or study has been interrupted or postponed due to voluntary military service or another federal volunteer service. Under these circumstances the family insurance can be extended by the duration of the voluntary service - up to a maximum of 12 months under the new law.
• disabled children can be covered by family insurance for as long as they can't provide for themselves.

Note: The disability must have occurred at a time, when the child was already covered by family insurance.  

A family insurance isn't possible, if one of the following criteria applies:

• if the regular residence of the spouse, life partner, or children is not in Germany.
• if the spouse, life partner, or children are compulsorily or voluntarily insured themselves, or if they're exempt from insurance or have applied for exemption.
• if the family member's main occupation is self-employment.
• if the family member's total monthly income exceeds 485 €. This threshold lies at 538 € per month if the family member pursues a Minijob.
• Spouses aren't eligible for family insurance during the protection periods according to the Maternity Protection Act and during parental leave if they weren't statutorily insured before that. In such cases they remain privately insured.

Children can't be covered by family insurance, if one spouse/life partner is statutorily insured, while the other spouse/life partner, who's related to the children, is not insured with statutory insurance, whose monthly gross income exceeds 5,550 € and also regularly earns more than the statutorily insured spouse/life partner.

You'll receive a certificate before the start of your membership from AOK Sachsen-Anhalt. To ensure that your employer or your reporting institution (e.g., Jobcenter, Federal Employment Agency, university) is informed about your change in health insurance company and can register you accordingly, you need to submit the AOK certificate to your reporting institution.

If you've been voluntarily insured with your previous health insurance company (e.g., self-employment, freelancer), you need to submit this certificate to your previous health insurance before the end of the notice period for termination.

For insured persons on parental leave, receiving parental benefit, or child-raising benefit, where there's no employer or reporting institution, the AOK will send the membership certificate to the previous health insurance provider.

For pensioners, there's no need to send the membership certificate since a notification will be automatically sent to the pension insurance provider. 

Important:

If there are changes to your current insurance status between your application date and the start of your insurance with AOK, such as changing employers or becoming unemployed, please inform us, so we can update your membership certificate. In some cases you may be able to switch to AOK earlier. If your reporting institution changes during this time, please also inform us promptly.Your switch can only be completed, if you inform us timely. This also applies if your current reporting institution is no longer responsible for you (e.g., termination of employment) and you have to be voluntarily insured with your previous health insurance provider before the start of your membership at AOK.

Our service team is happy to assist you. Please call our free hotline 0800 226 5726 or write us an e-mail at service@san.aok.de.
Alternatively, you can also schedule a consultation and one of our employees can complete this application form with you. 

Information on sickness benefit can be found here. 

With the law for improved tax deductibility of provisional expenses (Citizen Relief Act), citizens are financially relieved and benefit through the increased tax deductibility of health and long-term care insurance contributions they paid. For this purpose, social security institutions are tasked to report the health and long-term care insurance contributions and/or reimbursements from supplementary tariffs and/or bonus programs directly to the Central Allow-ance Authority for State Subsidized Pensions ("Zentrale Zulagenstelle für Altersvermögen - ZfA"). In order for us, as your partner in health and long-term care insurance, to transmit the amount of your paid health and long-term care insurance contributions to the Central Allow-ance Authority for State Subsidized Pensions (ZfA), we need your tax ID.