Health insurance for freelancers, without paying the public maximum, premium, deductible and sick pay: one free call in English
What you pay against the public maximum, and when to switch.
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In short
How does health insurance work for freelancers in Germany?
Your choice
As a freelancer, you can choose private health insurance at any income, from your first day. In public cover, your contribution rises with your income; a private premium does not.
Your cost
In 2026, private cover at 35 costs €400 to €550 a month. The public maximum is €1,226.
Your sick pay
Private daily sickness allowance can start on your first sick day. We match it to your income.
Reviews
What clients write
5.0
Jonas Marx
Licensed insurance broker · register no. D-ON7P-Y7Q94-16
- Advising since
- 2018
- English-speaking clients
- 900+
Cost and cover
How much is health insurance for freelancers in Germany?
At 35, private cover costs €400 to €550 a month with a higher deductible, against a public maximum of €1,226. Public cover reaches that maximum at an income of €69,750 a year. That is €675 to €825 a month below it. Even with the full deductible used, you stay €575 to €725 a month below the maximum. Since 2010, that public maximum has nearly doubled. We work out your figure with you, sick pay included. Book a free call
Choose a level to compare
Medium: Entry plus hospital comfort
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who can join | Your choice | At any incomePublic: Your choice | At any incomePublic: Your choice | At any incomePublic: Your choice |
| Premium based on | Your income | Age and health at entryPublic: Your income | Age and health at entryPublic: Your income | Age and health at entryPublic: Your income |
| Health questions | None | Yes, after an anonymous pre-checkPublic: None | Yes, after an anonymous pre-checkPublic: None | Yes, after an anonymous pre-checkPublic: None |
| Deductible | None | Your choicePublic: None | Your choicePublic: None | Your choicePublic: None |
| Contract length | Open-ended | For lifePublic: Open-ended | For lifePublic: Open-ended | For lifePublic: Open-ended |
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical wait for a specialist | 21 days | 7 daysPublic: 21 days | 7 daysPublic: 21 days | 7 daysPublic: 21 days |
| Choice of doctor | Contracted doctors | Any doctor, private practices tooPublic: Contracted doctors | Any doctor, private practices tooPublic: Contracted doctors | Any doctor, private practices tooPublic: Contracted doctors |
| Your medicines | Up to €10 co-pay each | No co-payPublic: Up to €10 co-pay each | No co-payPublic: Up to €10 co-pay each | No co-payPublic: Up to €10 co-pay each |
| Psychotherapy | Hours capped per course | 30 sessions a yearPublic: Hours capped per course | 50–80 sessions a yearPublic: Hours capped per course | No session limitPublic: Hours capped per course |
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your room | Standard ward | Standard wardPublic: Standard ward | Single or two-bedPublic: Standard ward | Single or two-bedPublic: Standard ward |
| Who treats you | Doctor on duty | Doctor on dutyPublic: Doctor on duty | Senior consultantPublic: Doctor on duty | Senior consultantPublic: Doctor on duty |
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crowns and bridges | €239 a crown | 80–90% coveredPublic: €239 a crown | 80–90% coveredPublic: €239 a crown | 80–90% coveredPublic: €239 a crown |
| Implants | Nothing for the implant | 80–90% coveredPublic: Nothing for the implant | 80–90% coveredPublic: Nothing for the implant | 80–90% coveredPublic: Nothing for the implant |
| Dental, first years | Fixed sum per tooth | Limit lifts after 4–5 yearsPublic: Fixed sum per tooth | Limit lifts after 4–5 yearsPublic: Fixed sum per tooth | No limitPublic: Fixed sum per tooth |
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trips within Europe | Local public care | Covered as at homePublic: Local public care | Covered as at homePublic: Local public care | Covered as at homePublic: Local public care |
| Trips beyond Europe | No | 1–6 months a tripPublic: No | 1–6 months a tripPublic: No | No time limitPublic: No |
| Public | Private Entry | Private Medium | Private Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-claims refund | €600, if you’re lucky | Up to 6 monthly premiumsPublic: €600, if you’re lucky | Up to 6 monthly premiumsPublic: €600, if you’re lucky | Up to 6 monthly premiumsPublic: €600, if you’re lucky |
| Sick pay | None at the reduced rate | From day one, if you choosePublic: None at the reduced rate | From day one, if you choosePublic: None at the reduced rate | From day one, if you choosePublic: None at the reduced rate |
| Saving for old age | No personal reserve | Built into your premiumPublic: No personal reserve | Built into your premiumPublic: No personal reserve | Built into your premiumPublic: No personal reserve |
| Premium in retirement | Based on your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Based on your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Based on your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Based on your income |
| Premium while you work | Rises with your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Rises with your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Rises with your income | Not tied to incomePublic: Rises with your income |
Who can join
As a freelancer, you can go private at any income, from your first day. In public cover you pay the full contribution yourself, with no employer half.
Health questions
Private insurers ask about your health before they accept you. We ask them anonymously first, so nothing goes on record until you choose.
Deductible
The part of your yearly medical costs you pay yourself. A higher deductible lowers your premium; we set it with you.
Contract length
Your private insurer can never cancel your cover because you fall ill or grow older. It runs for life, until you choose to end it.
Typical wait for a specialist
The median wait for an online-bookable specialist appointment in six German cities, from our study of 2,082 practices in August 2026.
Choice of doctor
Public patients see doctors with a public contract. Private patients can see any licensed doctor, including practices that only treat private patients.
Your medicines
In public cover you pay 10% of each prescribed pack, at least €5 and at most €10 (2026). Private cover pays your medicines under your tariff, without that co-pay.
Psychotherapy
Public cover approves therapy in set numbers of hours per course. Private tariffs set sessions per year, and top tariffs set no limit.
Your room
Public patients stay on a standard ward. Medium and Max cover a single or two-bed room, for more privacy and rest.
Who treats you
In public cover, the doctor on duty treats you. With Medium and Max, you are treated by the senior consultant.
Crowns and bridges
Public cover pays a fixed amount per crown, however much your crown costs. Private tariffs pay a share of the actual bill, so better materials are covered too.
Implants
Public cover pays nothing for the implant itself, only a fixed amount for the crown on it. Private tariffs pay a share of the whole treatment.
Dental, first years
At Entry and Medium, crowns, bridges and implants are paid up to a limit that rises each year and lifts after four to five years. Max has no limit.
How the dental limit works
At Entry and Medium level, crowns, bridges and implants are paid up to a total in your first years. In 2026 tariffs, that total starts at around €1,000 and rises each year. After 4–5 years, the limit lifts. Fillings, root canals and dental work after an accident sit outside it. Planning dental work soon? We pick a tariff with a short limit or none.
Trips within Europe
In the EU, Switzerland and the UK, the European Health Insurance Card gives public patients local public care, with its co-pays. Private cover pays as at home across Europe.
Trips beyond Europe
Public cover pays nothing outside Europe, apart from a few countries with an agreement. Private tariffs cover trips for 1–6 months, Max without a time limit.
No-claims refund
Depending on the tariff, private cover refunds up to six monthly premiums after claim-free years. A public fund refunds at most €600 a year, if it offers this.
Sick pay
Self-employed members at the reduced public rate get no sick pay. Private daily sickness allowance can start on your first day off sick, up to your net income.
Saving for old age
Part of every private premium goes into a reserve that keeps your premium steadier as you get older. Public cover keeps no reserve for you.
Leaving a job
How do freelancers switch health insurance after leaving a job?
Private cover can start on the day after your contract ends, so you are never uninsured. Your compulsory public membership ends with the job, and your public insurer (Krankenkasse) then writes to you. Send it proof of private cover within two weeks and you leave; otherwise you stay as a voluntary member and pay by income. Freelancing has to be your main occupation: a large part-time job next to it can keep you in public cover. Book a few weeks ahead, as the pre-check takes time. Plan your switch
What is your situation?
Student, not in paid work or something else? Who can get private health insurance
Income that moves
Why do freelancers get a back-payment from public health insurance?
In public cover, your contribution follows your income. Even with little income, you pay at least €278 a month in 2026. The maximum is €1,226. The fund sets the amount provisionally and settles it once your tax assessment arrives. A good year therefore returns as a back-payment, charged back to the first month the assessment covers: that is the trap. A private premium ignores your income, so switching ends the reckoning for the years ahead. Already freelancing in public cover? You usually give two months’ notice to leave.
Sick pay
How does sick pay work for freelancers in Germany?
Nobody keeps paying you when you are ill. Public cover at the reduced rate pays no sick pay at all; at the general rate, it starts in the seventh week. Private daily sickness allowance can start on your first sick day or on a later day you choose, and it is matched to your income. It also pays in the weeks of maternity protection around a birth. A later start lowers the premium. We set the daily amount and the start day with you. Plan your sick pay with us
Strong years
Can freelancers prepay private health insurance to save tax?
Yes. In a year with a high tax rate, you can pay up to three years of premiums in advance. The basic-cover share of that payment counts against that year’s income. In the years after, your other insurance, such as disability or liability cover, can count for tax instead. The payment has to reach your insurer before the year ends, and you need the cash at once. Whether it pays off for you, your tax adviser works out; we give them the figures.
How it works
Three steps to your cover
From your first call to confirmed cover takes 24 hours to a few weeks.
- 1
A Zoom call in English
30 minutes
You leave with your likely premium, the right deductible and the option that suits you. Your Zoom link arrives by email when you book. No preparation, no obligation.
- 2
Anonymous pre-check
If needed: a few weeks
Insurers rate your health without your name. Nothing goes on record. You get a shortlist.
- 3
Application with sick pay
For as long as you are insured
We prepare the application with you, sick pay included, and stay your contact.
Our advice costs you nothing. The insurer you choose pays us as your independent broker, and your premium is the same with or without one.
Independent
Which private health insurer is best for freelancers?
There is no single best insurer for freelancers. Yours has to pass four checks.
- 1
Accepts your health history: the anonymous pre-check shows which insurers do.
- 2
Covers what you want: hospital, dental, specialists, cover abroad.
- 3
Fits your budget: we set the deductible and sick pay with you.
- 4
Stays a good partner: we track its premium history and review its finances every year.
Only insurers that pass all four make your shortlist.
Guides
Want to read first?
FAQ
Before you book
Which deductible suits a freelancer?
What if my income drops?
Can I deduct the premiums from tax?
Can my partner and children join?
What if I take a job again?
Do I need health insurance for a freelance visa?
Sources and status ·
- [1]Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026 (contribution ceiling €69,750 a year; minimum income assessed €1,318.33 a month)
- [2]§ 5 Abs. 5 SGB V (no compulsory public cover for the self-employed in their main occupation, at any income)
- [3]§ 243 SGB V (reduced rate without sick pay), § 240 SGB V (contributions of voluntary members, on all income up to the ceiling, set provisionally and settled on the tax assessment, Abs. 4a) and § 55 SGB XI (long-term care rate), with the average additional rate for 2026 of 2.9%
- [4]§ 44 Abs. 2 Satz 1 Nr. 2 and § 46 SGB V (no public sick pay for self-employed members, unless a declaration of choice at the general rate adds it from the seventh week); § 192 Abs. 5 VVG (private daily sickness allowance, also paid during maternity protection; the first day of payment depends on the tariff); § 53 Abs. 8 SGB V (elective tariffs, for example the sick-pay tariff, can bind members for up to three years)
- [5]Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößenverordnung 2010 (contribution ceiling €3,750 a month) with the 2010 rates (reduced rate 14.3%, long-term care 1.95% plus 0.25% without children): self-employed maximum €618.75 a month at the reduced rate without children, against €1,226 in 2026
- [6]§ 146 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 and 2 VAG (private premiums set by entry age and risk, with old-age provision) and § 149 VAG (10% surcharge until the end of the year in which you turn 60); § 220 Abs. 1 SGB V (public cover financed from current contributions)
- [7]§ 19 VVG (duty to disclose your health before the contract; the anonymous pre-check comes before it)
- [8]§ 206 Abs. 1 VVG (the insurer cannot give ordinary notice on health insurance that meets the duty to insure; only you can leave)
- [9]TheGoodBroker Specialist Access Study, August 2026: 2,082 specialist practices in six cities; median wait for an online-bookable appointment
- [10]§ 76 SGB V (choice of doctor in public cover: contracted doctors; others only in emergencies, private practices only by cost reimbursement with the difference at your own cost, § 13 SGB V); § 4 Abs. 2 MB/KK (private cover: free choice among licensed doctors)
- [11]§ 61 SGB V (co-pay in public cover: 10% of the price, at most €10 a medicine, never more than its cost; 2026)
- [12]G-BA Psychotherapie-Richtlinie, §§ 29 and 30 (version of 19 March 2026): public psychotherapy in set hours per course of treatment
- [13]§ 17 Abs. 1, 3 and 4 KHEntgG (separately charged accommodation and the chosen doctor are elective services on top of general hospital care)
- [14]GKV-Spitzenverband, Festzuschussbeträge from 1 January 2026, finding 1.1 (crown, per tooth), 60%: €239.03; the amounts are set under § 57 SGB V; the hardship rate is capped at the actual costs (§ 55 Abs. 2 SGB V); § 55 SGB V as amended by the GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz (the subsidy falls from 60% to 50% of the standard treatment in 2027; the 2027 euro amounts are not yet set). The implant itself gets no public subsidy (§ 28 Abs. 2 SGB V); the crown on it does.
- [15]Regulation (EC) No 883/2004, Art. 19 (European Health Insurance Card: care within the local public system in the EU, the EEA and Switzerland; the UK under the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement) and § 13 Abs. 4 SGB V; § 16 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 SGB V (public benefits suspended abroad unless the Code or an agreement provides otherwise; social security agreements, for example with Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, give care in the local public system there); § 1 Abs. 4 MB/KK (private cover in Europe, outside it for one month a trip unless the tariff gives more)
- [16]§ 53 SGB V (public premium refund: at most one twelfth of the year’s contributions, at most €600, only where the fund offers it)
- [17]§§ 237 and 240 SGB V (public contributions in retirement, on pensions and other income)
- [18]§ 190 Abs. 2 and § 188 Abs. 4 SGB V (compulsory membership ends with the job; the voluntary follow-on membership ends only with proof of other cover, declared within two weeks of the fund’s notice); § 175 Abs. 4 SGB V (notice for voluntary members); § 5 Abs. 5 SGB V (main occupation)
- [19]§ 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 EStG (basic-cover premiums deductible; Satz 5: advance payment up to three times the year’s premiums, basic-cover share)
- [20]§ 204 VVG (tariff switch without new health questions for the same or less cover)
- [21]§ 10 Abs. 3 SGB V (children of a publicly and a privately insured parent: family insurance depends on both incomes and on marriage)
- [22]§ 6 Abs. 3a SGB V (rule from 55: five years outside public cover, at least half of them exempt or self-employed)
- [23]§ 193 Abs. 3 VVG (duty to hold health insurance) and § 2 Abs. 3 AufenthG (adequate health insurance for a residence permit)
Public maximum: for a member without children at the reduced rate without sick pay (with public sick pay: €1,261). Public minimum: €1,318.33 a month assessed; €278 for a member without children at the reduced rate, the same basis as the €1,226 maximum. Private figures: TheGoodBroker, typical premiums for healthy applicants in a very good tariff with a deductible of €600 to €1,200 a year, long-term care and the statutory surcharge included, without daily sickness allowance. Gap to the maximum: against €1,226. With the full €1,200 deductible used, €100 a month is added to both ends of the premium range. Sick pay: whether it starts on the first day depends on the tariff. Entry, Medium and Max: typical tariff levels from our market observation, as at October 2026; the tariff wording decides. Crowns, bridges and implants: typical reimbursement in good tariffs; dental limits apply for the first four or five years in many tariffs, from around €1,000 in year one, none in top tariffs. Premium refund: 1 to 6 monthly premiums, depending on the tariff and the number of claim-free years, set off against your tax-deductible contributions. Legal position: as at October 2026.
Know your numbers first
Jonas MarxFounder, licensed insurance broker
Thirty minutes on Zoom, in English, at no cost. If public cover fits your work better, we tell you.
- Your premium against the public maximum
- The right deductible and sick pay
- When you can switch
- Your own questions
Prefer to write first? Email us at info@thegoodbroker.de.