Yes — if you register with a state or state-recognised higher education institution in Germany, you need health insurance, and the default is German statutory cover (GKV); a private policy only works if you apply for an exemption and get it. Health insurance for students in Germany comes with a discounted statutory tariff up to the semester you turn 30, and proof of that cover sits alongside your passport and letter of acceptance on the enrolment checklist. In practice, then, almost everyone enrols with statutory insurance — the private route is a decision you make early and live with for the whole degree.
Statutory or private: which cover are you actually required to have?
Every student who registers with a state university or state-recognised institution must have health insurance, and students are generally under an obligation to take statutory health insurance — this is set out on the Federal Ministry of Health's page on health insurance for students. That obligation follows international students too, and it does not switch off during a gap year or a semester spent overseas.
Exemptions exist, but they are narrow. They are only available at certain times, and to get one you must show proof of equivalent private health and long-term care insurance (PKV). The application window is the first three months after your studies start, and the exemption must be supported by proof of private cover. Once you have been exempted, you cannot switch back to statutory health insurance at any point during your studies — that decision is effectively permanent for the length of your degree. There is one more eligibility condition worth checking before you assume the student tariff applies to you: compulsory student insurance is generally only available if you are not working more than 20 hours a week, with some exceptions.
One plain caveat before you compare policies or prices. This is general information only: it does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Read the policy documents you are given — the product disclosure statement and target market determination if you are buying through a provider that issues them — and check that the policy actually meets the health insurance condition attached to your enrolment or visa before you rely on it.
What changes once you turn 30?
The discounted student tariff is the main reason age matters here. Students under 30 can use the reduced compulsory student insurance rate, and DAAD puts that rate at about 120–130 euros a month with statutory providers. From 30, the standard contribution applies even if you are still studying, because the student insurance obligation usually ends in the semester in which you turn 30.
From that point your options narrow in a specific way: statutory cover is generally only available on a voluntary basis, and private insurance is possible but only if you have applied for the exemption described above. So the age-30 line is less about price than about eligibility — before it, you are in the student tariff by default; after it, you are choosing between voluntary statutory membership and a private policy, and the private option still has to clear the exemption requirement.
What proof do you need at enrolment, and for the visa?
Enrolment is where the paperwork bites. DAAD lists proof that you have statutory health insurance in Germany among the most important enrolment documents, together with your passport (with visa or residence permit) and your letter of acceptance. Note the wording: the enrolment document is proof of German statutory cover, which is why arriving with only a travel policy usually slows things down at the registrar's office.
Timing depends on where you are coming from. DAAD's health insurance guidance says international students have to prove equivalent cover meeting German standards either by the time they register or, depending on country of origin, by the time they apply for a visa — so for some nationalities this is a consulate question, not a university question. On the visa side, DAAD's visa page lists proof of health insurance among the usually required documents, alongside a valid passport and proof of sufficient funds. Proof of sufficient funds is a separate requirement from insurance; the sources we could check list it as a visa document but do not state a blocked-account amount, so take the figure from your German mission or the Federal Foreign Office rather than from any blog summary.
No official page we reached sets out a separate insurance standard for the residence permit itself, so treat that as unsettled: ask your local foreigners' office (Ausländerbehörde) what it will accept when you register your address and apply to stay, and get the answer in writing if the amount or type of cover matters to your budget.
Keeping your home-country policy is possible in limited circumstances. Germany may recognise it as equivalent if there is a social insurance agreement with your country, which DAAD notes mostly applies to students from the EU and the European Economic Area — Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein included. Equivalence is assessed against your country of origin, so this is a question to put to a statutory insurer in writing before you rely on it for enrolment.
Health insurance for students in Germany: language courses and Studienkolleg
This is the one point where official sources pull in different directions, and you should plan for the stricter reading. The Federal Ministry of Health's student insurance page says the student insurance obligation does not apply during a preparatory language course or other courses that precede the studies. DAAD, meanwhile, says the general duty to have health insurance also applies if you take part in a preparatory course or a Studienkolleg.
The two statements are probably about different things — one about whether you can access the discounted student tariff, the other about whether you must be insured at all while living in Germany — but no official page we reached reconciles them. Do not guess: ask the university's International Office and a statutory insurer directly, in writing, before you book a language course, and ask specifically whether your course counts as part of the study programme or as a preceding course.
The same gap applies to the visa. None of the official pages we could check states an insurance standard for students who come to Germany only for a language course, and embassy pages were not readable when we checked. For that case, the authority to ask is the German mission responsible for your place of residence — the Federal Foreign Office or your local embassy or consulate — not the university.