Medical

Health insurance is mandatory for everyone visiting or living in Germany.
When living in Germany you can either take our private (privaten Kran­ken­ver­si­che­rung – PKV) or public (gesetzliche Kran­ken­ver­si­che­rung – GKV) health insurance. Your choice will depend on your age, salary and employment status.
To know:

• It is extremely difficult to change from Private to Public insurance. The other way around is no issue
• Contributions for public depends on your salary, contributions for private depends on your risk profile (age and health). Private insurance become more expensive the older you get
• Private insurance – you pay expenses out of your pocket and claim them back
• Public insurance – your claim is submitted and paid by the company
• Only civil servants, the self-employed, students and employees whose salary exceeds the annual income limit (Versicherungspflichtgrenze) may take out private insurance. In 2023, this limit is € 66,600 gross per year. 
• For employees, the employer pays half of the premium (14.6% / 2) plus a statuary additional contribution (1.3%/2) , but only up to the maximum rate of a statutory insured person (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze). In 2023 the limit is €59850 or €4987,5 per month. That calculates to a max contribution of  €384,58  per month