KV/PV payments as a pensioner

[Jason1788]

As my retirement looms, I have been calculating my future Krankenversicherung and Pflegeversicherung costs. If I read it all correctly, I am liable for KV&PV payments not only on German & foreign state pension income, but all other income including from investments, rental, private pensions (German & foreign) even photovoltaic buy-back income. If this isn't bad enough, only the German and foreign state pensions qualify for the usual 50% "employee" reduction, whereas all others are subject to the full 14.6% for KV, plus the KV "additional percentage", plus 4.2% PV (higher "no children" rate) which in my case adds up to 21.25%. All this means that whilst my retirement income is significantly less than when I was employed, whilst my KV/PV costs are significantly higher.

If I am correct in all this, is there any legitimate way of reducing this liability?

[PandaMunich]

That would only be true if you were a voluntary member of public health insurance once you retire.

However, I assume that once you retire, you will be a member of the KVdR, i.e. a mandatory member of public health insurance.
To find out what the KVdR is, please read this: viewtopic.php?p=2157&hilit=kvdr#p2157
and this Finanztip article:

• in German: https://www.finanztip.de/gkv/krankenver ... r-rentner/

• machine-translated into English: https://www-finanztip-de.translate.goog ... r_pto=wapp

--> you will only have to pay (7.3% + 0.5*Zusatzbeitrag) for public health insurance and 4.2% public nursing insurance on your German and foreign social security pensions. And nothing on that other income.

[Jason1788]

Thanks Panda for the reply. That would be great news if it applied to me. I did apply for KVdR, but I was told I don't fulfill the so-called prior insurance period. It says I need to have been a member of the statutory health insurance scheme for 90% of the second half of the framework period (from the start of gainful employment to start of retirement). I must admit I don't quite understand this as would think that my UK National Insurance payments should qualify as a statutory health insurance scheme.

Basically I started gainful employment in 1985 and paid UK National Insurance until 2023 with only about 4 years missing (2012-2015). My KV membership (with TK) has been from 2013-2025 so really there is only one year missing (2012) so that should be approx 19/20 years of the 2nd half, ie 96%. I think I need to clarify with TK whether UK National Insurance counts as a statutory health insurance scheme.

[PandaMunich]

Membership in the NHS counts as "membership in an EU public health insurance", so go back to Techniker and get them to acknowledge your KVdR status.