Health insurance for international students in Germany?

[still-blue]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me out!

I'm planning to go to Germany later this year and I have a question about health insurance for international students there.

As far as I understand, there are two types of health insurance one can get in Germany:

• Public health insurance
• Private health insurance

Also, if a student opts to take a private health insurance, they can't switch back to the public one throughout their studies (is this information correct?).

The private ones seem to be significantly cheaper, but I am a little worried about going for the private one because I have heard that employers do not let students with a private health insurance work for them or intern for them. An internship is an important part of my planned studies so I'm really worried that it would be a problem.

Does anyone else have experience with this in Germany or any other European country with similar rules?

 

TL;DR: I have heard that students with private health insurance are not allowed to work or intern in Germany, is that true?