Do you pay private health insurance during parental leave in Germany?
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Key facts
- Elterngeld is the same in both systems: 65 to 67% of your net pay, up to €1,800 a month.
- A child costs about €200 to €250 a month in a very good private tariff.
- Tariffs with a premium suspension waive the premium for usually six months of Elterngeld.
- Back at work, your employer again pays half of your premium, at most €613.22 a month in 2026.
Yes. Your private premium runs on during parental leave, and without a salary your employer's share stops, so you pay the full premium yourself: about €500 to €600 a month in 2026 if you joined at 30, long-term care included. Part-time work brings the employer's share back, and a higher deductible for the leave or a tariff with a premium suspension lowers the premium.
Do you keep paying your private premium during parental leave (Elternzeit)?
Yes. Your private contract runs on unchanged during Elternzeit (parental leave), with the same cover and the same premium, for up to three years per child.[1] Up to 24 months of the leave can be taken later, until the child turns eight, so the months without a salary can come in several blocks. In public insurance, employees who earned above the income threshold are voluntary members, and during the leave they usually pay a minimum contribution of about €257 to €278 a month in 2026;[2] compulsory members, who earned below the threshold, pay nothing on their Elterngeld.[3] Your private contract runs on with the same benefits, and the levers below lower what you pay for the months without a salary.
Does your employer still pay half of the premium during parental leave?
No, not while you draw no salary. The employer subsidy is calculated on your pay, and Elterngeld is not pay, so during the leave you carry the full premium yourself.[4] For a healthy employee who joined at 30 that is about €500 to €600 a month in 2026, with long-term care and the statutory surcharge, and the levers below lower it for the months on leave. The subsidy returns as soon as you work part-time during the leave, and once you are back at work your employer again pays half of your premium and of your children's premiums, up to the legal maximum.
What happens if you work part-time during parental leave?
You may work up to 32 hours a week on a monthly average during Elternzeit.[5] The 32 hours are a limit of the parental leave, not of public insurance: whether you become compulsorily insured depends on your salary alone. If your part-time salary is below the income threshold of €77,400 a year in 2026, it would make you compulsorily insured in public cover,[6] but an exemption keeps you private:[7]
- Apply to the Krankenkasse within three months of starting part-time work.
- The exemption covers only the parental leave and cannot be withdrawn.
- It takes effect once you prove your private cover.
With the exemption your employer pays a subsidy again, calculated on your part-time salary: half of what public insurance would charge on that salary, for health and for long-term care, and never more than half of what you actually pay.[4][8]
Part-time salary of €1,800 a month during parental leave, 2026, outside Saxony
What changes when you return part-time after parental leave?
A second exemption keeps you private when you return part-time after the leave, if two conditions are met.[9] You work no more than half the regular weekly hours of comparable full-time staff, and you have been free of compulsory public insurance for at least five years because your salary was above the threshold; the parental leave counts towards the five years. Without these conditions, a part-time salary below the threshold makes you compulsorily insured; dormant cover then holds your private contract and your health status, so you can return without new health questions once you are free to choose again. Whether your planned hours meet the conditions, we check in a free call before you agree them with your employer.
How can you lower your private premium during parental leave?
Four levers lower the premium, and you can combine them:
- Premium suspension. There are tariffs that waive the premium while you draw Elterngeld, usually for six months, in a few tariffs for nine. Whether your tariff has one, and for how many months, we check for you in a free call before the birth.
- A higher deductible for the leave. A higher deductible within your tariff counts as less cover, so your insurer lets you switch without new health questions.[10] Before you switch, clarify how the way back works after the leave; most tariffs provide it through an option or as a service.
- Dormant cover for the daily sickness allowance. A daily sickness allowance pays only while you earn an income, so you can switch it to dormant cover for the leave and pay a few euros a month instead.
- Part-time work with the subsidy. Your employer pays half again on your part-time salary, as shown above.
Can you join your partner's public family insurance during parental leave?
No, not if you were privately insured before. The law excludes spouses and registered partners from family insurance during the protection period around the birth and during parental leave if they were not publicly insured just before, even if your income falls to zero.[11] Your private cover runs on without a gap and with the same benefits, and the levers above lower what you pay while you draw Elterngeld.
How does Elterngeld work if you are privately insured?
Exactly as in public insurance: Elterngeld (parental allowance) is paid by your federal state, not by your insurer, and amounts to 65 to 67% of your average net pay before the birth, between €300 and €1,800 a month.[12] Basiselterngeld runs for 12 months, or 14 if both parents take part of it, and ElterngeldPlus runs twice as long at about half the monthly amount, which suits a part-time return. For births from 1 April 2025 there is no entitlement above €175,000 of taxable income.[13] Maternity pay with private health insurance covers the protection period before and after the birth.
What do self-employed parents pay during parental leave?
Your private premium runs on in full, as before: about €500 to €600 a month if you joined at 30. A premium suspension, if your tariff has one, a temporarily higher deductible and dormant cover for a daily sickness allowance lower it for you just as for employees.
How do you plan parental leave with private health insurance?
Plan it before the birth, because two steps have deadlines:
- Before the birth: check your tariff for a premium suspension and for a deductible you can return from, and plan for the full premium during the leave.
- Within two months of the birth: enrol your baby with your insurer under Kindernachversicherung, which admits a newborn without health questions.[14] In a very good tariff a child costs about €200 to €250 a month, and once you earn a salary again your employer pays half of it; family health insurance in Germany compares the costs.
- At the start of the leave: activate a premium suspension or a higher deductible, and switch a daily sickness allowance to dormant cover.
- When you start part-time: apply for the exemption within three months and ask your employer for the subsidy on your part-time salary.
In a free call we check what your tariff offers for the leave and calculate what your household pays each month, from the birth to your return to work, including your baby's premium. The call, the comparison and everything after it cost you nothing, also when the answer is a tariff switch within your insurer.
Sources. [1] § 15 Abs. 2 BEEG (Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeitgesetz, the Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act); [2] § 240 SGB V (Sozialgesetzbuch V, the Social Code on health insurance); [3] § 192 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 SGB V and § 224 Abs. 1 SGB V; [4] § 257 Abs. 2 SGB V and § 61 Abs. 2 SGB XI (Sozialgesetzbuch XI, the Social Code on long-term care); [5] § 15 Abs. 4 BEEG; [6] Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026 (the annual regulation that sets the social insurance thresholds); [7] § 8 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 and Abs. 2 SGB V; [8] average additional contribution rate for 2026 of 2.9%, announced by the Federal Ministry of Health; [9] § 8 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 SGB V; [10] § 204 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 VVG (Versicherungsvertragsgesetz, the Insurance Contract Act); [11] § 10 Abs. 1 Satz 7 SGB V; [12] § 2 BEEG and § 4 BEEG; [13] § 1 Abs. 8 BEEG; [14] § 198 VVG. Private premiums: our comparison data, 2026. Legal position as at October 2026.
