Long-term care insurance; application for voluntary continued insurance

If you leave the insurance scheme, you can apply to remain insured under the statutory long-term care insurance scheme.

Antrag auf Weiterversicherung über den Kassen-Navigator des GKV-Spitzenverbands

This form can be submitted electronically without signature (e.g. via a secure contact form or by e-mail) or in paper form to the responsible authority.

If your insurance ends, you can apply to remain a member of the statutory long-term care insurance.

You can apply for continued insurance with the long-term care insurance fund with which you were last insured. The long-term care insurance fund is affiliated to your statutory health insurance fund, so you can use the same contact details.

Please note: The application for continued insurance is only possible for people who do not have any other long-term care insurance. Anyone who is insured voluntarily or as a compulsory member of statutory health insurance is automatically covered by statutory long-term care insurance. This includes family members with family insurance. At the same time, those with private health insurance are required to have private long-term care insurance. This means that you can only apply for continued insurance under statutory long-term care insurance if your compulsory insurance ends and you are no longer covered by health insurance in Germany - and therefore also long-term care insurance - because you are moving abroad or for other reasons.

If you move abroad with your family, the continued insurance in long-term care insurance also applies to your children and your partner if they were previously covered by your family insurance.

You already had statutory long-term care insurance, either
- without interruption in the past 12 months or
- for a total of at least 24 months in the past 5 years
You do not have any other long-term care insurance, for example through your statutory or private health insurance

Required Documents

Für den Antrag auf Weiterversicherung müssen Sie im Allgemeinen keine Unterlagen einreichen. Je nach Spezialfall kann Ihre Pflegekasse weitere Unterlagen verlangen.

You can submit the application for continued insurance by post, for example, or - in the case of many long-term care insurance funds - in person at the office or online.

Fill out the application form from your long-term care insurance fund and submit it to the long-term care insurance fund together with the documents required in the individual case. The application can also be submitted informally.
The long-term care insurance fund will check whether you meet the requirements for voluntary membership and inform you of the result.

You do not have to pay anything for the application.

You must apply for continued insurance no later than 3 months after leaving compulsory insurance or family insurance.

If your compulsory insurance ends because you move abroad, you must apply for continued insurance no later than 1 month after you cease to be subject to compulsory insurance.

Processing normally takes around 2 to 5 working days.
To ensure rapid processing and a decision, your long-term care insurance fund must have the necessary information and any required documents in a complete and meaningful form.
The long-term care insurance fund decides on applications promptly.
Please note that the processing time stated is an average value for all long-term care insurance funds. It may vary in individual cases.
The exact processing time also depends on the complexity of the individual case and may be longer. The same applies if documents or records are sent to you or your long-term care insurance fund by post.