(1) If qualifying periods are agreed, these may not exceed three months as general qualifying periods in respect of cost-of-illness, daily hospital allowance insurance, and daily sickness allowance insurance, and eight months as special qualifying periods in respect of childbirth, daily sickness allowance in accordance with section 192 subsection (5) sentence 2 psychotherapy, dental treatment, dental prostheses and orthodontics. In the case of long-term nursing care insurance, the qualifying period may not exceed three years.
(2) As regards persons leaving the statutory health insurance system, or who have left another contract relating to cost-of-illness insurance, account is taken of their uninterrupted period of insurance when calculating the qualifying period, insofar as the application for the insurance is made at the latest two months after the end of the previous insurance to begin immediately thereafter. This also applies to persons leaving the public sector with an entitlement to the health care allowance for public servants.