Best private health insurance companies in Germany: all insurers compared

The cheapest provider depends on which timeline you're optimising for:

• Lowest entry premium: HanseMerkur and Barmenia often quote the most competitive rate for healthy under-40 applicants.
• Lowest 30-year cost: mutual insurers like Debeka, Hallesche, and Continentale tend to win because their premium increases are more conservative.

Always run both projections side by side. The cheapest first-year premium is rarely the cheapest decade-three premium.

Our guide to the cheapest private health insurance in Germany compares entry premiums and 30-year costs in detail.

Allianz and AXA offer the most reliable English-language customer service, particularly in major metro areas. DKV has English support but it's more limited. Most other providers run primarily in German, so a broker is the practical workaround.

Our provider reviews rate English support for every major insurer.

Yes. Under §204 VVG (Versicherungsvertragsgesetz), every long-term private health insurance policyholder has the legal right to transfer their accumulated Altersrückstellungen (age provisions) to a new private insurer.

Two important caveats:

• The new insurer must accept the application, which depends on health underwriting.
• Reserves only travel between private insurers, never back into the public system.

A broker handles the transfer paperwork and compares like-for-like tariffs on your specific health profile.

There are over 40 licensed private health insurers in Germany, all regulated under the VAG (Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz).

For English-speaking residents, the 11 providers on this page cover the vast majority of the market and the broker landscape. The remaining ~30 are smaller regional, civil-servant-only, or specialist insurers that rarely make it onto a foreign applicant's shortlist.

Once you've decided private health insurance is right for you, the provider choice usually comes down to four questions:

• What coverage matters most? Dental → Hallesche. Mental health → Barmenia. International → HanseMerkur.
• How important is long-term premium stability? Older mutual insurers (Debeka, Hallesche, Continentale) have the longest track records.
• Do you need English support? Allianz, AXA.
• What's your budget? Entry: Debeka, Gothaer, Continentale. Mid: Hallesche, Signal Iduna. Premium: Allianz, AXA, HanseMerkur top tariffs.

A licensed broker compares all 11 against your age, health profile, and priorities, free of charge.

Almost never. Entry premiums are visible and easy to optimise for. The premium-increase trajectory over 20 to 30 years is much harder to read but matters far more for total cost.

Mutual / cooperative insurers (Debeka, Hallesche, Continentale, Gothaer, Barmenia, Signal Iduna) historically raise premiums more conservatively than shareholder-owned competitors. Decades of public premium-increase data exist for every licensed German private insurer. Ask your broker to pull both the entry price and the 20-year increase history before you sign.

There is no single best private health insurance in Germany, it depends on your profile. HanseMerkur and Hallesche lead for employees and the self-employed thanks to stable long-term premiums and refunds in claim-free years, Gothaer stands out for families, and ARAG for outpatient and dental benefits. Your age, health and budget decide the final pick, which is why we compare all major insurers for you free of charge.

For most English-speaking newcomers the shortlist is HanseMerkur, Hallesche and Ottonova. HanseMerkur combines the most stable premiums with an English application on its expat tariff, Hallesche wins on dental and long-term cost, and Ottonova is the choice if you want everything in an English app. Allianz and AXA offer the best English customer service but at higher premiums. If you hold a temporary residence permit, check our guide to private health insurance for internationals first, because a visa-compliant expat tariff can be the better entry route.

Allianz and AXA have the most reliable English-speaking support lines. Ottonova runs entirely in English through its app. HanseMerkur offers an English application and English policy documents on its expat product. Debeka, Continentale, Signal Iduna, Gothaer and ARAG work mainly in German, which is where a broker steps in: we handle the application, the health questionnaire and later claims questions in English for every insurer on this page.

By fully insured members it is Debeka with around 2.4 million, followed by DKV, Allianz, AXA and Signal Iduna. Allianz is the largest insurance group overall and DKV the largest health-only specialist. Size is a proxy for financial strength, not for price or service: the smaller mutuals HanseMerkur and Hallesche score better on premium stability in our reviews.