Siblings from Stuttgart owe 50,000 euros because their parents insured them incorrectly for years
Created: 08/04/2022, 10:30 am
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
Young and heavily in debt: Four siblings in Stuttgart now have to pay for a long-term mistake made by their parents (symbol image).
© Imago/YAY Images
Because four siblings from Stuttgart were wrongly insured by their parents for years, the health insurance company retrospectively billed them 50,000 euros.
According to the court, the claim is “incontestable”.
Stuttgart – Children are liable for their parents: The saying, which is actually known in reverse order, actually applies in a curious case from Stuttgart.
There, the 26-year-old business administration student Luisa and her three siblings have to pay back a total of around 50,000 euros to the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) because their parents insured them incorrectly for years.
As Luisa reported in an interview with the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
, her parents had mistakenly insured the four siblings as children, as reported
by BW24
.
According to the report, Luisa and her three older siblings had family insurance through their mother in the statutory health insurance for years.
The father was privately insured as a self-employed lawyer.
And that's exactly where the catch lies: Because the father's income has exceeded a certain limit in several years, the parents should have insured their children privately or voluntarily by law.
"Absolute grievance": Student Luisa has to file for personal bankruptcy
With around 15,900 euros in debt, student Luisa is hit the hardest by the siblings.
For the 26-year-old, it is "an absolute nuisance" that she is being prosecuted as an adult for a mistake her parents made before she was 18.
Of the amount that Luisa is supposed to pay back to the health insurance company
8,090 euros contribution claims, the rest late payment penalties.
Properly insure children if one parent is privately insured
If one parent is privately insured and one parent is legally insured, the child can be privately or legally insured.
However, non-contributory family insurance in statutory health insurance is not possible if the privately insured parent earns more than the statutory insured and has an income above the annual income limit
(2021: 64,350 euros)
.
Further regulations - depending on the parents' insurance - can be found at pkv.de.
Source: Association of Private Health Insurance eV/pkv.de
As the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
explains, the Techniker Krankenkasse invoices the contributions for Luisa and her siblings retrospectively from September 2008 onwards.
The period to which the claims relate is five and a half years.
During this time Luisa (with the exception of four months) was a minor.
Apparently, the health insurance company initially assumed that the parents would pay for their children's debts.
However, Luisa's father took legal action against the claims.
In the end, the state social court ruled that TK's decision was "incontestable".
Luisa's father recommended that the children file for personal bankruptcy.
Properly insuring children: Mistakes cost parents dearly
But why are the children the ones who suffer?
"As a fund, we have to address our contribution claims directly to the members, even if they are still minors," explained TK spokesman Klaus Föll when asked by the
StZ
.
The only way for the parents to pay for the debts would be for the children to sue them personally - which, according to the student Luisa, is not in their interest.
The consumer advice center in Baden-Württemberg meanwhile considers the entire process to be “not consumer-friendly”.
According to insurance expert Peter Grieble, everything should ideally be "regulated in such a way that nothing can happen".
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The end of the story: Student Luisa will file for personal bankruptcy in September.
She also hopes to be debt-free after her bachelor's degree and her subsequent master's degree.
It is questionable whether this plan will work.
The central debt counseling center in Stuttgart (ZSB) points out that insolvency administrators make sure that their debtors earn money quickly.
As debt counselor Sandra Meyer told the
StZ
, Luisa could be forced by the insolvency administrator to work directly after her bachelor's degree instead of completing a master's degree.
According to Meyer, anyone who is stuck in insolvency proceedings can no longer withdraw from it.
