Krankenkasse problems concerning residence permit

I am a British citizen and am married to an Austrian. I lived in Switzerland since 2004 and my wife moved from Austria to Switzerland after we married in 2019. my employer offered me to go into pension with bridge payments until I reach 65 years old. Of course the bridge pension is not enough for Switzerland but for Austria, no problem. After the Brexit I am obliged to apply for a residence permit although my wife is Austrian one can not imagine what an incredible problem this is. After consulting government institutions and an Austrian health insurance provider, we were advised by both parties to cancel the Swiss health insurance to enable access into the Austrian system, big mistake…. Now both my wife and myself have no health insurance in Austria, solution is however, applying for Austrian insurance, of which they insist on a valid residence permit, however, I cannot apply for this permit without health insurance, we are both very upset about this and the Austrian authorities who have advised us twice that all is ok and all will be fine in a week or two. Today the health insurance cancelled my application as I have no residence permit, I feel desperate as if I don’t solve this within the next few weeks I will be deported, we were told so many times to do this and that but unfortunately the total incompetence of certain parties has now put us in a very difficult position, again, I am married to an Austrian, have not married to obtain a residence permit but am being handled like an alien. Incredible and very sad, was looking forward to my last few years in Austria with my wife but now I have the feeling that Austria are not really welcoming me.
-@Dave Wal

I've sent you a PM Dave

Sent you a reply Dave

@Dave Wal

Your problem is very familiar to us.  We went thru the same when moving to Austria.  I (German EU citizen) and my husband (US American).  First and foremost : Since your wife is Austrian they cannot deport you, just delay the process of issuing the residence permit.

We came to Austria from the US with a pension from the US government without health insurance benefits.  My husband bought an expensive insurance which was supposed to be sufficient for obtaining the residence permit for him.  It was not as we found out soon. The Bezirkshauptmannschaft insisted on an Austrian certified health insurance we did not have.  Sounds familiar?  After we went round and round and getting desperate we did the following:

We put my husbands application for a residence permit on hold.  Since I am an EU citizen I did not need the permit and applied for self-insurance (Selbstversicherung) at the local OGK.  The cost was based on my pension and less than 200 Euro with the caveat that I had to pay for 6 months without being able to use it.  6 Monate Wartezeit Anwartschaft.  After that I was told I could add my husband to my insurance which would give him sufficient insurance coverage to get the residence permit, which he promptly did on the same day that I finally qualified for health insurance .  ( I did have to show the Anwartschaft and application to the OGK to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft).  But it did not go quite so smooth because the information we received from the OGK proved to be faulty. My husband made too much money in pension income and could not be covered by me and had to apply to be self-insured himself, which he could do because legally he now had the residence permit.  After another 6 Month Wartezeit auf Anwartschaft he finally had his own health insurance in Austria. 

We ended up paying for about 1 year and 3 months of an international health insurance which covered our costs but did not help to secure husband's Aufenthaltstitel.  Plus the cost of 6 months Leistungsfreie KV Beitraege.

Good luck and don't give up.