Bestandsschutz: what grandfathering protects in German private health insurance

The health assessment happens once, at entry. After that, your individual conditions are protected: the insurer cannot cancel your substitutive cover because you got sick, cannot add new exclusions, and cannot raise your premium because of your personal health or age. Premiums can only rise for an entire tariff group at once, when claims or interest assumptions change for everyone. That entry-time snapshot is why the age and health you sign with matter so much, and why our advice is to secure conditions early rather than wait. See how premiums are calculated for the mechanics.

The clearest Bestandsschutz example: when Germany raised the income threshold sharply in 2003, employees who were already privately insured on 31 December 2002 were grandfathered. They are measured against a lower, special threshold ever since. In 2026 the general threshold is EUR 77,400, while the special grandfathered threshold is EUR 69,750. The same principle protects existing private clients in the planned 2027 increase: those already insured are assessed against the regular threshold path, not the extraordinary jump. Earning less than a newly raised threshold does not automatically force you back into public insurance.

Bestandsschutz also shapes every switching decision. A tariff change within your insurer under Section 204 VVG keeps your entry age and your full aging reserves. Moving to a different insurer keeps far less: for contracts concluded from 2009 only a Basistarif-level transfer value moves with you, and older contracts generally have no statutory transfer right at all. The safety net is the Basistarif every private insurer must offer: public-insurance-level benefits, no risk surcharges, capped at EUR 1,017.18 per month in 2026. Access depends on your contract date and age, which is exactly the kind of detail worth checking before any move.