WANT TO SWITCH ON 2026 TERMS? YOUR PUBLIC INSURER NEEDS YOUR NOTICE BY 30 SEPTEMBER.
You earn over 77.400€. That gives you a choice most people in Germany never get.
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A few questions, then you pick a time.
Is private health insurance actually better for you? It depends on your salary, your family and how long you plan to stay. We go through it with you. Thirty minutes, in English, free.
Everything in English
We're brokers, not an insurer
Free and non-binding
We'll tell you if the answer is no
First question: are you allowed to choose at all?
In Germany you can't just buy private health insurance. The law decides who is allowed to leave the public system. There are three ways in. Most expats only ever hear about one of them.
You're employed
You earn more than 77.400€ a year, before tax.
That is the Versicherungspflichtgrenze, the salary bar, for 2026. Above it, you no longer have to stay in the GKV. What counts is your regular yearly salary, so one-off bonuses and stock usually don't help you clear it.
Timing matters too. A new job that already pays above the bar opens the door right away. A pay rise during the year works differently, and it's worth checking rather than assuming.
You're self-employed or freelancing
Any income at all.
If self-employment is your main job, you can choose PKV from day one. Your income doesn't matter. Most freelancers we speak to don't know this. And voluntary GKV cover is expensive when no employer pays half. Side businesses and artists insured through the Künstlersozialkasse are the exceptions, so check with us first.
You're close to the bar
Not there yet, but nearly.
If you earn 70.000€ and a raise is coming, the timing of that raise decides which year you can move in. Worth planning before you sign, not after.
None of this is advice yet. It only tells you whether the question is open for you. What you do with it is the real decision.
Book your free callYour salary decides how urgent this is
Here is the part almost nobody explains. The salary bar goes up in 2027. And it goes up by more than usual, because the new law adds an extra step. But that extra step doesn't apply to anyone who is already private before the end of 2026.
So there isn't one deadline. There are four different situations. Find yours.
The door isn't open yet.
As an employee you can't move to private cover at this salary. The law says your salary has to be above the bar, so exactly 77.400€ isn't enough either. That's the rule, not our opinion. If you work for yourself, ignore this box: you can choose at any income. And if a raise is coming, the timing is worth a short conversation.
You can move now. And there's one more step waiting in 2027.
You're above today's bar, so you can switch this year. But the bar rises next year, and your salary would probably sit under the new one. You can stay private. It just isn't automatic.
You'd apply to be exempted, and there's a three-month window for it. We file that application for our clients. One thing to know before you sign it: the exemption can't be undone. It closes the route back into the public system through your income dropping below the bar later. We go through what that means for you before anything is filed.
This is the group with the real deadline.
Move this year and you very likely stay private with no extra step. Wait, and you'd have to clear the full new bar in 2027. At this salary you probably won't.
The exact bar isn't set until autumn 2026, so we check your case either way. If a form turns out to be needed, we file it.
No rush, on the numbers we have.
You look to be above the bar either way. So you can go private this year, next year, or never. Nothing on this page is urgent for you, and we'd rather say that than pretend otherwise. We'll confirm it once the binding figure lands in autumn.
Two things to keep in mind. What counts is your regular yearly salary, not one-off bonuses or stock. And if a raise took you over the bar during 2026, your case works differently again. We'll tell you exactly where you land when we look at it.
Find out which one you areWhat the autumn deadline actually means
If you want to switch on this year's rules, three dates matter. They're closer than most people think.
- 130 September 2026
The last day to give notice to your public insurer. Public cover runs on two months' notice to the end of a month.
- 230 November 2026
Your public cover ends. But your notice only counts if you've proven your new private cover by then. So the private application has to be finished before this date, health questions included. In practice that means starting in August.
- 31 December 2026
Your private cover starts.
One group this works differently for.
Did a raise take you over the bar during 2026? Then you're still in the public system for the rest of this year, and you can't give notice now.
And here is the part that catches people out. Your exemption doesn't simply start on 1 January. It only starts if your salary also clears next year's bar. Because you weren't private on 31 December, that's the higher one. At most salaries in this range, January doesn't open the door either.
So please don't plan around it. Talk to us first, it takes ten minutes to check.
The public system just got more expensive and less generous. By law.
On 10 July 2026 the Bundestag and Bundesrat passed a cost-cutting law for public health insurance. If you're publicly insured, it moves one way. You pay more and you get less. These are the parts that matter if you earn well.
More to pay at the pharmacy
The charge per pack goes up by half. The minimum rises from 5€ to 7,50€. The maximum rises from 10€ to 15€. It's the first change since 2004.
Some benefits disappear
Homeopathy leaves the public catalogue completely. So does anthroposophic medicine. The standard subsidy for dental work drops from 60% to 50%, and the bonus you earn through regular check-ups drops with it.
Your "free" family cover gets a price
Does your spouse or registered partner have cover through you at no cost? That's the Familienversicherung, and from 2028 it comes with a charge. You pay a surcharge of 2,5% of your income, up to the contribution ceiling. On today's figures that's up to about 1.750€ a year.
Two things to be fair about. Children keep their free cover, and nothing changes there. And parents with a child under 12 pay nothing either. Other exemptions apply too, for example if your spouse cares for a relative or is past pension age. Unmarried partners were never covered through you for free in the first place, so this doesn't touch them.
The ceiling keeps climbing
Every GKV fund charges an extra rate on top of the base 14,6%. That extra rate has more than doubled since 2022. In 2026 the highest public contribution is 1.261,31€ a month, care insurance included. You pay 648,09€ of that yourself. Those are the rates without children; with children they're slightly lower. Both figures are set to rise again in 2027.
None of this proves private is better. It proves something narrower. "Public is the safe default" was a stronger assumption in 2020 than it is now. Public benefits are a political decision. Private benefits are a contract.
Book your free callWhat it actually costs, and what it saves
Most comparisons online quote a monthly premium and stop. That number on its own tells you nothing, because you don't pay all of it. Here's the structure that decides the answer.
- 1
In the public system there's a point where paying more buys you nothing
Your GKV contribution is worked out from your income, up to a ceiling. That ceiling is the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze, and in 2026 it sits at 69.750€ a year. Above it, your contribution stops at 1.261,31€ a month in total. 648,09€ of that comes out of your own pay. Those are the rates without children; with children they're a little lower.
Every euro you earn above the ceiling adds nothing to your cover. That's the part people find hard to believe.
- 2
In the private system your income isn't part of the sum
Your premium is set when you join. After that it has nothing to do with what you earn. A promotion, a bonus, a better-paid job: none of it moves your premium.
- 3
Your employer pays half of a private premium too
This surprises people. The employer share applies to PKV as well. It's half your premium, capped at 508,59€ a month in 2026, with a separate share toward the care premium on top. The cap is set to rise in 2027, because the ceiling rises.
- 4
The basic part of your premium is tax-deductible
The part of your premium that matches basic cover reduces your taxable income. That does not cover the extras that make private attractive, like a single room or a higher dental limit. Those sit under a separate allowance, and most employees have already used it up. So the deduction is real on the base premium and usually worth nothing on the top-up. We show you the split for your own tax position.
We're not going to tell you private is cheaper.
For a single high earner or a freelancer, it very often is. For a family where one partner doesn't work and there are two or three children, public usually wins. Even after the 2028 surcharge. The only number that matters is yours, and we work it out with you.
When private is the wrong call
We're brokers. We get paid when someone takes out a policy. So it's worth saying plainly where we advise against it. You'd find out eventually anyway.
You're planning a bigger family and one partner won't work. Private means a separate premium for every person. Past two children, public is usually cheaper. That stays true even with the 2028 surcharge.
You're over 55. Getting back into the public system after 55 is closed for most people. At that age the decision is close to permanent. It needs a different conversation than this page.
Your income might drop below the bar again. Parental leave, a career break, a move to a lower-paid role. There are answers for all of it, but they need planning before you sign.
You're choosing on price alone. Cheap tariffs are usually cheap because they cover less or are calculated tightly. Those are the ones where premiums tend to rise hardest later. If price is your only criterion, public is the safer place to be.
You might leave Germany soon. You can park a private policy and keep your entry age. But that's a decision to make on purpose, not to discover later.
If one of these is you, the call takes ten minutes instead of thirty. You leave with a clear no. That's a perfectly good outcome.
Book your free call"But doesn't private get unaffordable when you're old?"
This is the first thing almost everyone says. It deserves a straight answer, not reassurance.
What's true: public contributions fall when your income falls. On a small pension you pay a small contribution. Private doesn't work that way. If you retire on a low income, your premium doesn't shrink to match. That worry is fair, and we're not going to talk you out of it.
What's exaggerated: the picture of a premium spiralling until it ruins you leaves out four things.
- 1
A 10% surcharge sits on top of your premium by law. You stop paying it at the end of the year you turn 60. It isn't a fee. It's money set aside for your own later years, and it holds your premium down from 65.
- 2
Money is set aside from day one. Part of every payment is reserved for the fact that you'll cost more later. That's the whole point of the private funding model.
- 3
There's a legal floor. Every private insurer has to offer a Basistarif, a basic tariff. Its health premium can never cost more than the highest public health contribution. That's 1.017,19€ a month in 2026, with the private care premium on top. And if paying it would leave you dependent on benefits, the law halves it.
You don't land there automatically, you have to switch into it, and the benefits drop to public level. But it means the worst case has a ceiling.
- 4
A private contract can be steered. A public one can't. You can change tariff, raise your excess, or pre-fund a lower premium for retirement. In the public system you take what the legislature decides.
Over the last twenty years or so, average yearly premium rises have been slightly lower in the private system than in the public one. And private insurers have to disclose their rises over the past ten years in the offer documents. So you can check the tariff you're actually being shown.
Source: WIP (Wissenschaftliches Institut der PKV), the research institute of the German private health insurers' association, Entwicklung der Prämien- und Beitragseinnahmen in PKV und GKV – Aktualisierung 2024/2025, November 2024. Over 2005–2025 the study puts the average yearly rise per insured person at 3.1% in private cover against 3.8% in public.
What actually changes day to day
"Better cover" is a phrase, not an argument. These are the real differences.
| Public | Private | |
|---|---|---|
| Seeing a specialist | Public You can book directly, but you're on the public list, and that list is long | Private You're on the private list, which is a different queue |
| Hospital | Public Any approved hospital, though going past the one your doctor assigns can cost extra. Shared room, 10€ a day for up to 28 days a year | Private Free choice of hospital. Single or double room. No daily charge |
| Medication | Public 10% per pack, at least 5€ and at most 10€. From 2027 that becomes 7,50€ and 15€. There is a yearly cap of 2% of your income, 1% if you're chronically ill | Private Usually no charge ladder, depending on tariff |
| Dental | Public 50% to 65% of the simplest standard treatment from 2027 | Private Not limited to the simplest treatment |
| Glasses and laser eye surgery | Public No benefit for most adults. Narrow exceptions for children and very strong prescriptions | Private Covered, depending on tariff |
| Traveling abroad | Public Necessary treatment in the EU/EEA, Switzerland and treaty countries like Turkey, Israel or the UK, at local public rates. No flight home, and nothing at all beyond those countries | Private Worldwide cover selectable |
Both systems buy care from the same doctors and the same hospitals. What changes is speed, comfort and how much is covered. Not the quality of the medicine. Anyone telling you private buys better doctors is overselling.
Book your free callWhy international professionals bring us this question
The whole thing runs in English. The call, the comparison, the application, and us dealing with the insurer for you. You're not making a life decision with a dictionary open.
We're brokers, not an insurance company. As a Versicherungsmakler we sit on your side of the table and have to advise in your interest. Broker commission is inside the premium whether you use a broker or not. So independent advice doesn't cost you extra.
We look at the whole picture. Health insurance touches your tax, your pension and your investments. We don't look at it on its own.
We say no. We've told people to stay public more often than they expect.
What our clients say about working with us.
What happens on the call
- 1
Before, two minutes
You fill in the short form at the top. Salary band, whether you're married, whether you have children. That's it. It lets us prepare instead of asking you the basics live.
- 2
On the call, thirty minutes
We check whether you can switch at all. We run your numbers against the public system. Then we tell you which of the two makes more sense for you. In English.
- 3
After
If private makes sense, we compare tariffs and handle the paperwork with the insurer. If it doesn't, you have a clear answer and nothing to do. Either way there's no cost and no obligation.
Questions we get every week
Usually not straight away. If a raise takes you over the bar during the year, the option normally opens the following January. A new job that already pays above the bar is different and can open it at once. We check your exact case on the call.
It applies if your salary sits just above today’s bar but below next year’s. In that case you become subject to compulsory public cover again in 2027, even though you’re already private. You can stay private, but you have to apply for an exemption, and there’s a three-month window. Nobody at your public insurer will remind you.
It’s a short application, and we file it for our clients. One thing to understand before you sign it: the exemption can’t be undone. It closes the route back into the public system through your income later dropping below the bar. For most people in this position that’s the right trade, but it’s a decision, not a formality. We go through it with you first.
Sometimes. If your income drops back below the bar before you turn 55. Or through family cover via a publicly insured spouse. Or via unemployment benefit. From 55 the door is closed for most people, with narrow exceptions.
One catch worth knowing. If you filed the 2027 exemption described above, the income route is closed for you, because that exemption can’t be undone. This is the most important thing to understand before you decide anything.
You can park the contract and keep your entry age for a small monthly amount, in case you come back. Or you can cancel it. Both are fine. Just decide it on purpose.
Everyone has their own premium. Children are much cheaper than adults. A newborn can be insured with no health questions, no surcharges and no waiting time. Three conditions apply. A parent has to have been insured for at least three months before the birth. You register the child within two months. And the child’s cover can’t be better than the parent’s. Whether that beats public family cover depends on how many people you’re insuring, and we work it out for your household.
No. Same doctors, same hospitals. What changes is how fast you’re seen, what you’re entitled to, and how much is covered.
In most private tariffs, yes. You get the bill, you send it in, you’re paid back. Usually through an app and usually within days. Some people find that annoying. Others prefer seeing what treatment actually costs.
No. Private premium changes are worked out across your whole tariff group, never for you alone. What a claim can cost you is the yearly refund some tariffs pay when you don’t claim. So for small bills it’s often worth paying yourself. We show you where that line sits.
No. Everything runs in English, including the application and our letters to the insurer.
It gets assessed. It can lead to a surcharge or an exclusion. Being straight about your medical history is essential, because wrong answers can cost you your cover later. We go through this carefully before anything is sent.
Yes. Free and non-binding. We’re paid by the insurer if you take out a policy, and that commission is inside the premium whether a broker is involved or not.
Not sure if any of this applies to you?
That's what the first thirty minutes are for.
Book your free call