What kind of insurances you need naturally depends heavily on your personal situation: How long you are planning to stay in Germany, whether you’re employed or a freelancer or whether you have children/pets. Based on our experience of working with expats and immigrants for more than 25 years, we compiled our recommendations into three coverage levels: essential, strongly recommend & recommended depending on your personal situation.
These recommendations should still be viewed as guidelines and may need to be adjusted according to your individual needs, but will give you a good idea about what people moving to Germany should and should not have when it comes to insurances.
ESSENTIAL
Health insurance
Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung (GKV) & Private Krankenversicherung (PKV)
Health insurance has been mandatory for all residents since 2009. There are two health insurance systems in Germany that are more or less mutually exclusive:
- Public health insurance (GKV)
- Private health insurance (PKV).
In short: All employees in Germany have to be in GKV unless they earn more than 73.800 € / year, then you can opt out and join PKV. The private health insurance system is particularly attractive for (relatively) young joiners, people who do not want to stay in Germany for a long time and people looking for better coverage.
Costs for GKV: Fixed percentage of your income: ~ 20 %, min. 230 € & max. 1.174,16 € / per month (employers pay 50 %)
Costs for PKV: Depend on your age of entry and scope of coverage (employers also pay 50 %)
Liability insurancePrivathaftpflichtversicherung(PHV)
Private liability insurance will cover you if you cause harm to a third party. This can be property damage, related to their health (personal injury) or financial damage, resulting from property damage or personal injury. If someone makes a claim for damages against you, your insurance company will determine whether it is justified. If it’s not, your carrier will defend you against the claiming party. If the claim is justified, your insurance will pay the costs.
Costs: Single plan 50 € - 70 €/ per year, couple plan 60 - 80 € / per year, family plan 80 – 100 € / per year.
Car liability insuranceKfZ-Versicherung
Car insurance is one of the few types of insurance that is compulsory in Germany. If you want to register a car/motorised vehicle you need to have proof of a liability insurance. Otherwise you are not allowed to drive on German streets. Since the vehicle liability insurance only covers damage to third parties, there are a range of additional modules, add-on and auxiliary insurances you can take out. The two most common are “Teilkasko” and “Vollkasko”.
Teilkasko also covers theft of your car, but also damage through fire/explosion and elemental dangers (floods, hail, earthquakes etc.), glass damage & a few other risks. Vollkasko expands this coverage to vandalism & damages to your own car, even if the accident was your fault.
Costs: The annual premium mostly depends on the car itself and on claims-free insurance years (which can be accredited even from other countries).
Travel health insuranceAuslandsreisekrankenversicherung
The public and private health insurance schemes do not covers the entire cost of treatment abroad. If you do not have additional international health insurance when you travel abroad, you will have to pay the full amount of any invoices yourself. Travel health insurance cover the full costs of necessary medical treatments abroad and also covers costs for return transports to Germany as well as search & rescue costs.
Costs: Single plan 20 €/ per year, family & couple plan 32 € / per year with an unlimited amount of travels up to 56 days.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
Supplementary health insuranceGesetzliche Krankenversicherung (GKV) & Private Krankenversicherung (PKV)
If you are insured through the public health insurance system (GKV), you can top-up your coverage through private modules and thus get access to better coverage.
- In-patient treatment: Private rooms & head physician treatment.
- Out-patient treatment: Homeopathic treatment, glasses, preventative measures, etc.
- Dental treatment: Add additional coverage and get percentage-based reimbursement for orthodontic treatment, tooth replacements, bridges, teeth cleaning and even teeth whitening.
Costs depend mainly on your age, for somebody aged 35:
Household insuranceHausratversicherung
Household insurance (also known as content insurance) reimburses you for the loss and/or damages to things that are normally kept in your home and belong to you: Clothes, books, electronic devices (laptop, phones, TV etc.), furniture, bikes, valuables (to a certain degree) and other personal belongings. Household insurances cover all the things in your home against fire, water damages, and theft after a break-in and a few other risks.
Costs: The annual premium naturally depends on how much your belongings are worth but range from 50 €/ year for singles and 100 – 200 €/ year for families.
Private legal expenses insurancePrivatrechtsschutzversicherung
Private legal expenses insurances support the insured person in legal disputes relating to their private daily life. Depending on the scope of coverage these insurances cover private matters, disputes with your employer/landlord or when driving a car.
Costs: 250 €/ year for basic plans up to 350 €/ year for more extensive coverage.
DEPENDING ON YOUR PERSONAL SITUATION
Long term oriented insurances
These insurances really depend on your personal situation and should be best discussed individually.
Here we could have a look into:
Situational insurances
There are insurances only relevant in special circumstances.
Contact us!
As an independent insurance broker, specialised in expats and customers from all over the world, we know the answers to all your questions . As a family-run business with more than 25 years of experience, we know that every client is unique and we provide personal, individual consultation. It goes without saying that we’re all fluent in English!