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Child sickness benefits

• You are entitled to leave from work to care for your sick child.
• Either your company or health insurer will pay you the salary during child sick leave.
• Many employers in Germany have excluded child sick pay in their contracts. So, the health insurance company pays 90% of the net wages lost during child sick leave.
• You can take 15 working days off per child and parent in a year. So, a family with two parents and one child can take 30 days of child sick leave.
• Private health insurance companies usually don't provide child sickness benefits. But you can take this service while signing the contract. You can also change your private health insurance tariff if you are not happy with the current one.

Read our guide on the child sickness benefits to learn more.

Family insurance in Germany

• You can insure your dependents for free in your public health insurance.
• You and your family members must meet certain conditions to get free family insurance.
• Unfortunately, privately insured individuals cannot insure their dependents for free in their health insurance. They must get a separate private health insurance policy. You can learn about the essential services your private health insurance must cover here.

Requirements to get free family insurance

• The family member to be insured must live in Germany.
• They do not work full-time as self-employed.
• The family member must not be exempt from public insurance. For example, they are a high-earning employee or civil servant.
• People from certain professional groups, such as civil servants, judges, soldiers, or clergy, cannot be included in family insurance.
• Their monthly income doesn’t exceed the minimum income limit. The income limit is 505 € per month as of 2024.
• The income shouldn’t exceed the mini-job income limit for family members working part-time. It’s 538 € per month as of 2024.

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