Short Answer
Your non-working spouse and children can be insured for zero euros under your public healthcare policy.
You must submit a separate, formal tracking questionnaire to link your family members directly to your primary membership profile.
What Most Expats Don't Realize
You assumed your family was automatically covered the moment you registered for public health insurance at your new job. Your spouse visited a local medical clinic and received an unexpected €450 private treatment invoice because their name was completely missing from the insurance registry. You lost your weekend tracking down retroactive paper documents simply because you failed to file the explicit family dependency profile with your provider.
What To Do
- Call your public health insurance provider to request the physical document package titled "Fragebogen zur Familienversicherung."
- Bring your official marriage certificate and your children's birth certificates to an authorized translator for notarized conversion.
- "Ich beantrage die kostenlose Familienversicherung für meine Angehörigen." (I am applying for the free family insurance for my dependents.) — Email the completed application form along with the translated certificates straight to the insurer's portal.
The Truth
Germany utilizes single high-earning workers to subsidize large household profiles across the public health network. The system provides extensive collective coverage for dependents but leaves the entire burden of manual data registration on the primary employee.