Before you start

Employment contract or proof of income
Meldebescheinigung from your Anmeldung
Steuer-ID
A German bank account for contributions

Step-by-step

1
Understand the two systems before choosing
Statutory charges a percentage of income up to a ceiling, covers dependants at no extra cost, and allows free switching between funds. Private prices on age and health at entry, charges per person, and rises with age.
OnlineWho: YouFirst month
2
Choose statutory if eligible and unsure
Statutory funds differ modestly in supplementary rate and extras, and switching between them is easy. Starting statutory keeps the option open; the reverse move generally does not exist.
OnlineWho: You
3
Get your insurance confirmation for the residence permit
Proof of health cover is required for the permit application at the Region Hannover. Your insurer issues a confirmation once you enrol.
OnlineWho: You
4
Register with a Hausarzt in your first fortnight
Your GP is the entry point to specialist care in practice, and a referral from one is what gets you into MHH's specialist clinics. Register while you are well.
In personWho: You
5
Learn the out-of-hours system
For urgent but non-emergency problems, 116117 is the national medical on-call number and will direct you to an out-of-hours practice. Emergency departments are for emergencies.
Mobile appWho: You
6
Note the regional poison centre number
Lower Saxony is served by GIZ-Nord in Göttingen on 0551 19240, not by the Bonn centre that NRW guides list. Put the right one in your phone — this is exactly the kind of state-level detail that copied advice gets wrong.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Employment contract or proof of income
Meldebescheinigung
Steuer-ID
Passport and residence permit
Bank details for contributions

Things most newcomers don’t know

MHH is a national specialist centre, not a regional hospital.

The Medizinische Hochschule Hannover is one of Germany's leading transplant institutions and runs specialist units in cardiology, pulmonology and infectious disease that draw patients from across the country. If you or a family member has a complex condition, being in referral distance of it is a real, quantifiable advantage of living here — and one no relocation brochure mentions.

Source: community-reported

The poison centre for Lower Saxony is in Göttingen, not Bonn.

Germany's poison information centres are organised by state group, and copied English-language guides routinely give the NRW number. GIZ-Nord on 0551 19240 covers Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. It takes ten seconds to save and it is the wrong moment to be searching.

Source: GIZ-Nord, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen

Going private is nearly a one-way door.

Private cover is often cheaper than statutory for a young, healthy, high-earning newcomer, and brokers sell on exactly that comparison. But premiums rise with age, each family member is priced separately rather than covered free, and returning to statutory later is difficult and near-impossible above a certain age.

Source: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit

116117 is the number that saves an emergency department visit.

The national medical on-call service handles urgent but non-life-threatening problems out of hours. Germans use it routinely; newcomers default to the emergency department and wait a long time as low priority.

Source: Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung

Common mistakes to avoid

Saving the NRW poison centre number because an English guide listed it.
Choosing private insurance on the first year's premium without modelling the long run.
Not realising statutory covers dependants free while private does not.
Going to an emergency department for something 116117 would have handled.
Forgetting the insurance confirmation the Region Hannover requires for your permit.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.