More than one year ago Pemulis changed jobs. By the grace of God and the power of capital markets that have no connection whatsoever to economic fundamentals said job still exists today. By law you must have health insurance in Germany. Not having it is just plain verboten. Pemulis's old job ended on September 30th, 2023 and his new job began (because it was a Monday) on October 2nd, 2023. The astute reader will notice that for one day -- October 1st, 2023 -- he was without health insurance. Which is clearly, as we say in Germany,* a faux pas.
Having been a German resident for some 10 years at that point, Pemulis was cognizant that this one unemployed day could (nay, would) pose a serious problem for the powers-that-be in the German bureaucracy and beyond. And so he carefully planned for attempting to avoid such a complicating (and illegal) factor and spent many trying hours with the Krankenversicherungs people trying to arrive at a solution for what would be done about that ominous potentially uninsured day at the beginning of October.
Phone calls were had. Many of them. E-mails were written. It was suggested at one point that Pemulis work with his new employer to try to change the start date from October 2nd to October 1st (a Sunday). Ze German representatives of said employer in Germany said "Nein! That is a Sonntag! You will start on Montag!". "But my health insurance!" pleaded Pemulis. But rules be rules.
The lovely folks at Health Insurance R Us (or some German equivalent) finally caved and said look, you have two options: you can pay for that one day which we don't recommend because if you don't have income on that day then you just have to prove that you don't have income on that day and then you won't have to pay. And Pemulis said great I'll take that option. But then the only way to prove you don't have income is to apply for Arbeitslos (unemployment) support for one day but then that affects your future taxes and all this undesirable stuff so Pemulis said Listen, I'd be happy to pay for this one day. And they said OK but it's not the best idea because you'll be charged the maximum. OK.
And then nothing happened. Everyone went about their business, life continued, and no one ever heard about the problem again. The Krankenversicherungs people were seemingly happy. They said nothing. No bill was sent. No money was taken out of Pemulis's bank account. The problem just faded into the background.
Until November 15th, 2024.
November 15th (13.5 months after the fact), the Krankenversicherungs people noticed a problem. At one point, more than one year ago, for 24 hours, Pemulis lacked health insurance. This is verboten. The Krankenversicherung was displeased. The government would be unhappy. There would be forms to fill out. There would be problems. This did not bode well.
Eventually Pemulis would be face to face with a nameless representative of the Krankenversicherung.
"I know it's ridiculous" sighed the representative.
But you need to make a choice: you can either pay for the one day (but it will be the maximum amount! [normally it is a percentage of your income but without any income you either don't pay at all -- but have to prove no income -- or you pay the maximum) or you prove that you had no income on that day so many months ago. Pemulis thought he had already made that choice (in fact he'd completely forgotten about it since it was, you know, about 14 months ago). He said "I will pay". The representative said OK, you must fill out these 914 forms. And he did.
One week later a bill arrived. The bill. For Pemulis's health insurance for one day from 14 months ago. And it was painful. It was difficult. But the 7 euros and 12 cents were transferred to the Krankenversicherung and all was again right in the Bundesrepublik.
