Even if minors owe contributions to the health insurance: searching the child’s room violates the fundamental right to the inviolability of the home.
afp | A health insurance fund may not search the room of a juvenile who owes it contributions. Such an intrusion would be inappropriate, as the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) explained in a decision published on Tuesday in Karlsruhe. In interventions into privacy, the heightened vulnerability of minors must be taken into account. (Az. VII ZB 13/25)
In the case, the juvenile owed about €9,500 to the statutory health insurance because contributions had not been paid. The health insurance company applied to the district court in Gotha, Thuringia, for a search order for its enforcement officer. It stated that she would need access to the parents’ apartment or the child’s room.
The district court rejected the application, and the Thuringian Higher Court (Landgericht Erfurt) confirmed this. Now the health insurance had no success before the BGH either.
Children’s Room as the Only Individual Living Space
Minors are generally insured by their parents in the statutory health insurance at no extra cost. There are, however, exceptions. If the primary breadwinner is privately insured and exceeds the earnings threshold, the child can also be insured under the statutory system, but then must pay contributions.
Free family insurance is not possible if the child has their own income of more than €565 per month. Even after a divorce, it can lead to problems in certain configurations.
In the case now before the BGH, the first claims had already arisen in 2011 and 2013, when the debtor was still a small child. The district court suspected that unreliable guardians were responsible for the debt, not the girl herself.
Therefore, the intrusion into the inviolability of the home was even less justified, especially since the child’s room was her only individual living space. The interests of the health insurance as creditor were assessed by the district court as less weighty. The BGH reviewed the decision and found no legal errors.
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