Public vs private health insurance calculator

What a healthy employee joining at 35 pays a month after the employer’s share, with no deductible and long-term care included. Your age and health set your own figure.

In a new job paying over €77,400 a year (2026), you can choose private cover from day one. The self-employed and civil servants can at any income.

Public cover takes a share of your income, up to a maximum. A private premium follows your age at entry, health and cover, so a pay rise leaves it unchanged.

Private insurers ask about your health before they accept you. We ask them anonymously first, so nothing goes on record until you choose.

We send your health details to insurers without your name. You see who would accept you, and at what price, before you apply. We can ask the full market.

The part of your yearly medical costs you pay yourself. A higher deductible lowers your premium; we set it with you.

Standard public cover has no yearly deductible. Instead, you pay a co-pay on medicines, therapies and each day in hospital.

You pick a yearly amount you pay yourself, for example up to €2,500. A higher amount lowers your premium. Our advice for employees: none, or up to €600.

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.

How long you wait for a specialist appointment you can book online. Private patients wait a third as long.

Public patients see doctors with a public contract. Private patients can see any licensed doctor, including practices that only treat private patients.

At a private-only practice, public patients pay the bill themselves. Their fund refunds little or nothing of it.

Some doctors in Germany treat only private patients. With private cover, you can book them as well as any other doctor.

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.

Public cover approves therapy in set numbers of hours per course. Private tariffs set sessions per year, and top tariffs set no limit.

For behavioural therapy, public cover approves up to 80 hours per course (2026). Other methods have their own limits, and each step needs approval.

At Entry level, you get up to 30 sessions a year. Some tariffs at this level pay 80% of each session.

At Medium level, you get 50–⁠80 sessions a year. That is enough for a session almost every week.

At Max level, there is no yearly limit on sessions. Once your insurer approves the treatment plan, it pays for every session.

Treatment your doctor prescribes, such as physiotherapy, speech or occupational therapy. Public cover charges a co-pay on each prescription; private cover does not.

In 2026, you pay 10% of each therapy’s cost yourself. On top comes €10 for every prescription.

Private tariffs pay prescribed physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy. Each tariff sets its own price limits, which we compare for you.

From insoles to hearing aids, the aids your doctor prescribes. In public cover, the fund picks the model. Private tariffs pay from their list, or at Max for any aid.

Public cover pays for standard models. You pay a co-pay of up to €10 for each aid yourself (2026). A better model costs you the difference.

Your tariff names the aids it pays for, and may cap hearing aids at a set amount. We check the list with you before you choose.

Max tariffs pay any aid your doctor prescribes as medically needed, without a closed list.

Public cover pays for adult glasses only with a very strong prescription. Private tariffs pay a budget every few years, and the budget grows with the level.

In 2026, adults get lenses paid only for strong prescriptions, such as over 6 dioptres of short or long sight. Frames are never paid.

Entry tariffs pay around €150 for glasses or contact lenses every two to three years. We check the amount and the timing with you before you choose.

Medium tariffs pay around €300 for glasses or contact lenses every two years. We check the amount and the timing with you before you choose.

Max tariffs pay up to €1,000 for glasses or contact lenses every two years. Some top tariffs go further.

Public patients stay on a standard ward. Medium covers a two-bed room and Max a single room, for more privacy and rest.

At Entry level, you stay on the standard ward, as public patients do. A two-bed room is the step up to Medium.

Medium pays for a two-bed room. In German hospitals, this is an elective service (Wahlleistung).

Max pays for a single room, for the most privacy and rest. In German hospitals, this is an elective service (Wahlleistung).

In public cover, the doctor on duty treats you. With Medium and Max, you are treated by the senior consultant.

At Entry level, the doctor on duty treats you, as in public cover. Treatment by the senior consultant is the step up to Medium.

In German hospitals this is the Chefarzt, the head of the department. Other senior doctors involved in your care are covered too.

Some German clinics treat only private patients. A public fund will not pay for a stay there. Private cover lets you pick either kind.

A stay at a private-only clinic is not part of public cover. Your fund pays little or nothing of the bill.

You can choose any public or private hospital that meets the medical standard. For a planned stay at a private clinic, ask us first what your tariff pays.

Adults in public cover pay a fixed charge for each day in hospital. Private cover has no such charge.

Adults pay €10 for each day in hospital (2026). The charge stops after 28 days in a calendar year.

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.

Public cover pays a fixed €239 per crown in 2026. Regular check-ups raise it, up to €299. Whatever your crown costs above that, you pay.

Private cover pays a share of your dentist’s actual bill, not a fixed sum. For work over €2,000, you can ask your insurer in writing what it will pay before treatment starts.

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.

The law excludes implants from public dental care, apart from rare severe cases. The fund pays only its fixed sum for the crown on top.

At Entry and Medium, crowns, bridges and implants are paid up to a limit that rises each year. The limit lifts after about five years at Entry and three at Medium. Max has no limit.

At Entry 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 about five 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.

At Medium level, the dental limit lifts sooner, after about three years. It starts at around €1,000 and rises each year. Fillings, root canals and dental work after an accident sit outside it.

Max tariffs set no total for dental work in your first years.

A thorough cleaning by your dental team, called PZR in Germany. Public cover does not include it. Private tariffs can pay for it, and we pick one that does.

Professional cleaning is not part of standard public cover. Some funds pay a small subsidy as an extra.

Entry tariffs refund one cleaning a year and Medium tariffs two. Most Max tariffs set no limit. In some tariffs, a cleaning does not count against your no-claims refund, which we check for you.

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.

In the EU, Switzerland and the UK, the card gets you the public care of the country you visit. Where local patients pay a share, you pay it too.

Private cover pays treatment anywhere in Europe, Switzerland and the UK included, with no time limit. Bills from abroad are refunded under your normal tariff.

Public cover pays nothing outside Europe, apart from a few countries with an agreement. Private tariffs cover each trip for at least a month, Medium for longer, and Max without a time limit.

Outside Europe, public cover pays nothing, apart from a few countries with an agreement, such as Tunisia. Travel insurance fills that gap.

Every private tariff covers the first month of a trip outside Europe. For longer trips, we match the tariff to how you travel.

Medium tariffs cover the first three months of a trip outside Europe. For longer stays, we check the extension with you before you go.

Max tariffs cover trips outside Europe with no time limit. You stay covered for as long as the trip lasts.

Depending on the tariff, private cover refunds monthly premiums after claim-free years, up to six at Max level. A public fund refunds at most €600 a year, if it offers this.

A public fund may offer a refund for a claim-free year, at most €600 by law. Whether yours does is up to the fund.

Small bills you pay yourself keep your year claim-free. Your insurer then returns part of your premiums, in most tariffs more after several such years.

From week seven off sick, public cover pays at most €135.63 a day (2026), well below your net pay. You choose private sick pay up to your full net pay.

Public sick pay replaces 70% of your gross salary. In 2026, it stops at €135.63 a day, however much you earn.

As an employee, you set it to start on day 43, when your employer stops paying. You choose the daily amount to match your net pay.

Each lifelong private premium includes a savings share for your later years, so getting older does not raise it by itself. Public cover is pay-as-you-go: today’s contributions pay for today’s patients.

By law, part of every lifelong private premium is saved for your later years. If you change insurer, part of that reserve moves with you.

In retirement, public contributions follow your pension and other income. A private premium does not, and a German state pension brings a subsidy towards its health part.

In retirement, public contributions take a share of your pension. Without enough years in public cover, rent and savings income count too.

If you draw a German state pension, the pension fund adds a subsidy to the health part of your premium. A relief plan you pay into while working can lower your premium by €250–⁠500 a month.