Private health insurance offers you a range of benefits that - depending on the tariff - often exceeds the minimum level of statutory health insurance.

The first important plus: preferential treatment by general practitioners and dentists. Finally, private insurers usually contribute significantly higher rates to medical services than the statutory health insurance funds. Free choice of doctor, full reimbursement of costs and preferential treatment for hospital stays are just some of the advantages of private insurance. 

You can influence the amount of your premium in the private insurance yourself by choosing an individual benefit package. For many - especially for singles, childless people and high earners - private health protection is even significantly cheaper than compulsory insurance. Every tenth German therefore already has private health insurance.

Self-employed, employees and civil servants
You can take out private health insurance as a self-employed person or freelancer - regardless of your income.

As an employee, you may switch to private health insurance if your annual gross income exceeds the compulsory insurance limit of 66,600 euros for 1 year (this corresponds to 5,550 euros per month; as of 2023).

Civil servants and other persons entitled to benefits, e.g. judges or members of parliament, also usually have private health insurance.

Private health insurance is often cheaper
Private health insurance can be cheaper than statutory health insurance, even for people with average incomes. There is almost always a clear financial advantage for high-earning singles and childless married couples who work full-time. Self-employed entrepreneurs and freelancers have to take responsibility for their own insurance anyway.

The range of benefits offered by private health insurers is considerably more extensive than that of statutory health insurers - by choosing the right tariff, you can decide for yourself on the scope of benefits covered by your contract.

Preferred treatment
An important advantage of private health insurance is the preferential treatment by general practitioners and dentists - after all, private insurers usually reimburse higher rates for medical services than the statutory health insurance funds.

High-quality benefits
As a private patient, you enjoy many other advantages, depending on the tariff you choose. These include the free choice of doctor, full reimbursement of costs even for alternative or very expensive methods of treatment, exemption from co-payments for medicines or treatment by non-medical practitioners. Private health insurers also reimburse up to 100 per cent of the costs of dental treatment - including implants and other high-quality dental prostheses.

In hospital, depending on the agreed tariff, you enjoy treatment by a chief physician, accommodation in a single or double room and free choice of hospital.

You determine the premium
The amount of the premiums in private health insurance depends on the chosen benefit package - from the favourable minimum tariff for young self-employed persons to the comprehensive top tariff for the demanding.

The premium also depends on the age and pre-existing conditions of the insured as well as the desired deductible. In private insurance, you can save a lot if you are prepared to pay a certain amount of your medical costs yourself each year.

In addition, if you don't cost your insurer a cent for a year, you often get one to three months' premium back.

Health check at the doctor
Before you take out the policy, you usually have to fill out a detailed questionnaire on pre-existing conditions and possible health risks. Sometimes you will also have to have a health check by a doctor.

Important: Do not make any false statements when filling out the questionnaire or when visiting the doctor - this can cost you insurance cover in the event of an emergency.

If you have decided to switch to private health insurance, you are faced with a large number of providers with a large number of products and tariffs.

However, taking out private health insurance online without expert advice is not recommended: The subject is complex and there are many details to consider.

Due to the constantly growing costs in the health care system, it cannot be ruled out that the premiums in private health insurance will also continue to rise. This can become a financial burden if, as a retiree, you no longer have the same high income as when you were working.

For this reason, ten percent of the contributions of all privately insured persons between the ages of 21 and 60 are allocated to a special old-age contribution guarantee - this ensures that your contributions remain relatively stable later on.

If you want to save money in retirement, you can also switch to an inexpensive standard tariff from the age of 65, which offers at least the benefits of a statutory health insurance fund - or you can forego individual offers such as treatment by a chief physician or a single room in a clinic and keep your premiums low in this way.

It is possible to return if your income falls
If you have switched from a statutory fund to a private fund, you cannot return without further ado - the legislator wants to prevent you from benefiting from the low contribution rates of private health insurers when you are young and avoid rising contributions when you are older by switching.

It is only possible to return to statutory health insurance if your income permanently falls below the compulsory insurance threshold of 66,600 euros (as of 2023). However, if you are older than 55, you must remain in the private scheme.

Back even if you are unemployed
If you are exempt from compulsory insurance altogether, there is no way back into the statutory funds - such an exemption is possible on application if you want to remain in the private scheme even though your income has fallen below the compulsory insurance limit.

The only exception: unemployment. If you register as unemployed, the employment office will usually re-insure you in the statutory scheme. In principle, however, switching back to a statutory insurance fund should be well considered, because this means losing the age reserves that your private health insurance has built up for you.