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.

[yesterday]

But paying NI does not give you the benefits of the NHS.

National Insurance covers you for the following

National Insurance contributions count towards the benefits and pensions in the table.

Screenshot 2025-09-15 133943.png (56.99 KiB) Viewed 196 times

OR see web site of https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/w ... nce-is-for

So National insurance is really only for your UK state pension + plus a few other odds and ends, but not NHS or medical cover.

The NHS is funded from the general taxation, you only get this if you live in the UK for more than half a year, each year and of course pay tax in the UK.

See here https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/health ... ealthcare/

So I would assume, you have not being paying into the State NHS while you have been abroad.

[MarkMTB]

See https://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung ... _kvdr.html

When assessing membership in the pensioners' health insurance scheme, all British insurance periods are taken into account in addition to German ones.