Our health is
our most valuable asset.
Private Health Insurance (PKV) undeniably offers the highest standard of medical care in Germany – and even worldwide. Yet, in an insurance jungle that’s already hard to navigate, Private Health Insurance is considered to be the most complex.
This complexity affects one group in particular: expats.
Without prior knowledge or the necessary language skills, it’s almost impossible to gain the insights needed to make sustainable decisions about the healthcare plan that protects both your health and your finances.
❓ Too many open questions remain unanswered
Eligibility, long‑term price development, what happens when you have kids, retirement, moving abroad, taxes, a possible return to public insurance, etc.
🧭 Truly independent advice is hard to find
Most platforms and agents represent one or just a few companies – meaning they sell what they’re allowed to or have to, not necessarily what’s best for you.
💸 Prices are often totally misleading
Without proper context, premiums don’t reflect tax deductions, employer contributions, necessary add-ons or all the bonuses – making price comparisons totally unreliable.
📄 You’re shown what is covered – but not what isn’t
Exclusions, limitations, obligations and deductibles are buried deep in the terms and conditions, yet they’re exactly what matters to assess the product’s quality and individual suitability.
🧩 PKV consists of countless modules and add‑ons
Which ones are essential, which ones are optional, and where can you safely save money without risking future problems?
📊 Soft factors are hard to assess but crucial
Financial stability of the insurer, ageing provisions, past premium increases, tariff structure, and long‑term sustainability are rarely discussed – yet they can make a huge difference over time.
🔁 Unclear rules around future tariff changes
How easily can you switch tariffs later on? Under what conditions? And how do you avoid getting stuck in an expensive or inflexible plan?
📝 Medical questionnaires are complex and high‑risk
How detailed do your answers need to be? What should be disclosed? And what happens if something is missing or misunderstood?
📞 No long‑term point of contact after signing
Once the contract is in place, many expats are left alone – with no one to answer questions, help with claims, or adjust coverage when needed.
⚠️ Decisions are often made too fast
PKV insures your most valuable assets: your health and your money – yet many expats are pushed to decide quickly, oftentimes baited by cheap premiums or good marketing, making a product look better than it is, without fully understanding the consequences.
❓ You get clarity on everything
There are two things you don’t know: the things you’re aware of you don’t know – aka your questions – and the ones you don’t know you don’t know. That’s what the consulting is for. Over multiple sessions, we go through everything that’s relevant for your future health insurance, with plenty of time for Q&A. Prevention is better than cure.
🧭 You get independent, unbiased advice
As a broker, I’m not tied to any one provider. I compare across the market and recommend what fits you best – not what I’m told to sell.
💸 You get a realistic understanding of true costs
What they show you is almost never what you actually pay. I factor in tax benefits, employer contributions, all bonus systems, deductibles, and long-term affordability so you get to compare all price scenarios between tariffs.
📄 You learn what’s not covered, not just what is
More relevant in insurance than any other field: know what you’re NOT getting. I go over what you can expect from your insurance, but also the things which are not (adequately) covered – highlighting not only benefits but also exclusions, obligations, and hidden deductibles and limitations.
🧩 You get help choosing the right modules
I guide you through every option – from dental to daily sickness allowances, hospital room upgrades, long-term care allowances, access to private health care, change of tariff rights, etc. – and help you actually include what’s important to you and what you can maybe skip.
📊 You get access to the full picture
I give you insight into very important soft factors: the insurer’s financial health, stability of your tariff, historical price development and sustainability.
🔁 You stay flexible in the future
I explain the conditions for future tariff changes, and make sure your setup allows for adjustments when your life changes.
📝 You get personal help with the medical questionnaires and the official application
I help you complete the health declaration correctly and safely – including how to handle past diagnoses, prescriptions, or grey areas without putting your application – and thus your insurance – at risk.
📞 You have a long-term contact person
Does your need for support end after the application was done? Of course not! I’ll assist with the paperwork afterwards and explain how to handle claims and make the most out of your bonus programme. I remain available for questions, updates, claims assistance, and changes – even years down the road.
⚠️ You get the time, space, and context to decide
I give you the tools to understand, reflect, and make a decision that’s right for your health and financial wellbeing – now and in the long run.
With insurance, people tend to forget they’re buying a product. The product being a long, long list of situations for which financial damage is compensated. The cheaper the product, the shorter the list.
It is therefore essential to understand that buying cheaply can – rather than save you money – also result in serious, potentially existential financial damage.
And since the quality of your PKV also determines the quality of the healthcare you have access to, buying cheaply or omitting necessary add-ons can have very real health consequences too.
“Normal” insurances do two things: they protect your bank account on the one hand but they also protect your sanity on the other by preventing an already difficult situation from turning into a potential existential crisis as well.
Private Health Insurance (PKV) does three things: it protects your bank account, your sanity but most importantly your life. How quickly or even if people recover is often dependent on the quality and speed of the applied medical care, the exact two things the public system (GKV) cannot offer due to systemic and legal limitations.
Once a contract is active, there are only a few – if any – ways back or out. It’s really, really important to understand that the contract will be enforced exactly as stipulated in the terms and conditions – not how you thought it worked.
Private Health Insurance is so complex because every single imaginable case, every single detail of what the insurance covers and does not cover is meticulously described in the general terms and conditions (AVB), oftentimes up to 100 pages of them.
It shocks me that so many expats will take out the single most important insurance based on a simple list of highlighted benefits, most of the time even designed by the insurance company or online platform themselves with only one goal: to sell their product.
You are eligible to enter Private Health Insurance (PKV) if:
*Each Private Health Insurance (PKV) company has its own health requirements. The same health records will typically be evaluated very differently by different companies. It is therefore necessary to gauge insurability with several different providers in order to warrant the best possible outcome in terms of contract conditions as well as price.
As an independent broker, I offer the decisive advantage that I have access to nearly all Private Health Insurance (PKV) providers on the market. This broad access combined with personal contacts within the insurance companies themselves for direct communication and negotiation warrant the best possible outcome for your very individual medical history.
Get in touch for help with Private Health Insurance (PKV)
If you don’t live in Germany (yet) or if you’re just planning on staying in Germany for a couple of weeks, months or even years while visiting or working remotely as a freelancer, you are not eligible for Private Health Insurance (PKV). You can, however, obtain expat health insurance, also called incoming insurance. This kind of insurance can be mandatory to obtain a Schengen visa.
This insurance can be especially relevant If you belong to one of the following categories of visitors:
Contact me for a free quote in your specific situation.
Especially for younger people, Private Health Insurance (PKV) can offer significantly lower monthly contributions than Public Health Insurance (GKV). That’s because PKV premiums are calculated individually – based on your age, health, and chosen coverage – rather than as a fixed percentage of your income.
In GKV, you pay more simply because you earn more. In PKV, you pay based on risk and benefits – not salary. You also benefit from better services and much faster access to specialists in most cases, apart from many other not so well-known benefits such as coverage for eyewear or laser surgery, much more ample preventative exams, much better dental coverage etc.
However, “cheaper” doesn’t always mean “better” in the long run. That’s why it’s essential to look beyond the monthly premium and consider factors like future price development, family planning, and long-term flexibility.
With the right guidance, PKV can offer excellent, even premium value at (much) lower cost – but it shouldn’t be chosen based on price alone. Please read the next FAQ articles for more information on why taking out PKV by yourself or based on price alone is extremely dangerous.
Private Health Insurance (PKV) is one of the most complex and far‑reaching financial decisions you’ll make in Germany. Once the contract is signed, many aspects are long‑term or even irreversible – which is exactly why taking out PKV on your own is a bad idea (read more below on why I caution against online offers).
When you apply by yourself, you’re expected to fully understand:
In reality, most people don’t – and can’t – assess all of this without professional support, Germans included.
What’s more, people who take out Private Health Insurance (PKV) by themselves are also fully responsible themselves for any mistakes or omissions.
Here’s a simple but true principle: you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s why non-surgeons don’t perform surgery and non-lawyers don’t represent clients in court. In a matter as complex as PKV, non-experts are not in a position to broker PKV contracts. Simple. As a registered broker, I’m licensed and continually keep on expanding my expertise on the subject.
Once a contract is active, there are only a few – if any – ways back or out. It’s really, really important to understand that the contract will be enforced exactly as stipulated in the terms and conditions – not how you thought it worked.
That’s why I caution against online platforms and do it yourself (DIY) solutions. These mostly simplify complexity into checklists and “recommended” tariffs, often designed to sell, not to protect you long term. What’s not covered, how premiums evolve, or how flexible the contract is later on usually isn’t explained at all.
Working with an independent broker changes this fundamentally:
You don’t shop for Private Health Insurance (PKV) like you buy any other product you simply throw away or upgrade later. PKV is a long-term commitment with real-life, long-term consequences for your wallet and your health. Doing that without expert, independent guidance is a risk you don’t need to take – especially since professional advice comes at no extra cost to you.
Insurance protection for the event of a loss of income due to health reasons (occupational disability) is a must for anyone living in Germany. The reason being that the state in those scenarios will only cover an existential minimum. Insuring your (and your family’s) standard of living (where and how you live, what you can put in your fridge, what kind of holidays you can afford, etc.) can only be protected by means of a private insurance contract such as a Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung (occupational disability insurance), mostly called “BU”.
For privately insured people, being protected against the risk of loss of income becomes even more relevant. If illness, accident or psychological strain (e.g. burnout, depression) forces you to stop working for months, years or even permanently, you could become dependent on the existential bare minimum while your PKV contributions, however, continue to increase until about age 60.
Think of it this way: If you’re in a situation in which you need to file a claim to obtain payments from your income protection insurance, you’re in a place in which your health, your fast recovery and your access to the best possible medical care matters most. Without income protection, most people can’t afford basic necessities anymore, let alone contributions to Private Health Insurance (PKV), which could compromise your insurance status.
This is not an edge case. Today, about 1 in 4 people in Germany becomes unable to work at least once during their careers — and the top causes are psychological and dread disease-related — causes that can affect anyone.
A Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung (BU) provides a monthly replacement income in these situations, allowing you to:
Contact Max to get help taking out income protection.
PKV consulting with me is about as far as it gets from cherrypicking any “top deal” from a search engine or comparison website.
It’s about making sure you understand what you’re signing up for and
that it fits your requirements today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.
Because let’s not forget: your Private Health Insurance (PKV) might just be the longest contract you’ll ever have.
Your setup today will determine your medical and financial well-being well down the line.
The process typically takes between 3 and 6 meetings of about 1.5 hours, depending on your medical history,
individual requirements, and questions. Here’s what it looks like:
All of this comes at no extra cost to you. My service is remunerated directly by the insurer while maintaining full independence.
Only in cases where no contract is brokered (for example, uninsurability) or a contract is
cancelled prematurely do I apply a Fair Compensation Rule, invoicing my services fairly.
We’ll need an overview of all doctor’s visits, treatments and therapies of the last three years. This time limit is increased to five or even ten years for all inpatient treatments (overnight stays at the hospital) and psychotherapies. For more “serious” conditions or ongoing issues, documentation from a treating doctor or hospital may be required.
Sometimes it’s advisable to contact your previous health insurances or Krankenkasse to collect an overview of your doctors’ visits.
Once you’ve collected your history, we’ll get together in order to arrange the info and documents according to branch standards. In most cases, your personal information will be anonymised and sent to different insurance companies which offer preselected tariffs that match your profile and selected coverage.
Each company will then cast a “vote” regarding the anonymised profile, either accepting, rejecting or accepting with certain conditions. In the next step, we’ll go through the options together, discussing your options in terms of benefits as well as price.
Private Health Insurance (PKV) can be a major upgrade—especially for expats who value choice, speed, and top-tier medical care. Your main benefits typically include:
Important: PKV is not a given right as soon as you’re eligible (->see: When do I qualify for Private Health Insurance (PKV)) — you must pass a health check. Also, Private Health Insurance is only as flexible as your initial setup. That’s why the proper setup matters from day one.
PKV can be a fantastic system — but it’s not a “quick win” and it isn’t right for everyone. The main disadvantages to be aware of are: