Going private: apply, get accepted, then switch

The order matters: accepted first, then out of your public fund, so there's never a day without cover.

1. Know the date you're free

   A new job above the threshold is free from its first day; in the same job, from 1 January after a year above it and the next year's threshold. The self-employed and voluntary members are free now, with notice. Check whether, and from when, you can go private.

2. Get offers, and answer the health questions

   Every insurer asks its own health questions, and your answers decide whether it accepts you and at what price. Answer every question fully: wrong or missing answers let the insurer withdraw from the contract or change its terms later, for up to three years after it's made, or ten if they were deliberate (§§ 19, 21 and 194 VVG).

   Health questions checklist 8

   What insurers usually ask about, to gather before you apply. It's for you alone: we never ask for any of it.

   • Doctors. Every doctor and therapist you've seen in the period asked about, with dates.
   • Diagnoses. As written in your records, including ones you think were minor.
   • Medicines. What you take or took regularly, and for what.
   • Hospital stays. Operations and stays, usually asked about further back.
   • Psychotherapy. Sessions and counselling, also usually asked about further back.
   • Teeth. Missing teeth, crowns, implants, and treatment already planned.
   • Eyes. Glasses or contact lenses and their strength.
   • What's pending. Tests, referrals or treatment advised but not yet done.

   Your records. Ask your doctors for a copy first.

   You have a right to see your medical records and get a copy (§ 630g BGB). Your file may hold diagnoses you don't remember, and an insurer checking a claim later will read it, so read it before you answer.

   An anonymous enquiry. Before any application in your name.

   An insurance expert can ask several insurers anonymously how they would take your case, so you apply only where the answer is known. Only the insurer decides.

   The tariff, not only the price. What it pays for is fixed by contract.

   Compare the deductible, sick pay (Krankentagegeld), dental cover, psychotherapy, hospital accommodation, what happens to premiums in old age, and whether you can later add cover without new health questions.

3. Wait for acceptance in writing

   Keep your public cover until you hold the insurer's acceptance and policy. You then have 14 days to withdraw from the contract (§ 8 VVG).

4. Leave your public fund

   Compulsory insurance just ended. Declare your exit within two weeks.

   When compulsory insurance ends, the fund writes to you and the membership carries on as a voluntary one, unless you declare within two weeks of its notice that you're leaving, with proof of the new cover (§ 188 Abs. 4 SGB V).

   A voluntary member. Notice to the end of the second month after.

   Give notice in October and the membership ends on 31 December, provided you prove the new cover by then (§ 175 Abs. 4 SGB V). The 12-month minimum doesn't apply when you leave the public system.

   No waiting periods, if there's no gap. Your time in public insurance counts.

   Private insurers can make you wait up to three months, and eight for things such as childbirth, psychotherapy and dentures, but time in public insurance counts towards them if the private cover follows on directly and you apply within two months (§ 197 VVG).

5. Tell your employer, and add care insurance

   Give your employer the insurer's certificate, so it pays its half of the premium with your salary (§ 257 SGB V). Private long-term care insurance is compulsory alongside private health cover (§ 23 SGB XI), and the employer pays half of that too.

The rules as of 26 September 2026. Your public fund decides when your compulsory insurance ends, and each insurer decides on its own applications.

Primary sources checked on 26 October 2026: the statutes and official pages linked above.