Supplementary Health insurances

• In-patient treatment: mostly hospital stays and your treatment in one.
• Out-patient treatment: everything ranging from visual aids to preventative measures and homeopathic treatment. The variety here is great.
• Dental care: more reimbursement for extensive dental work, teeth cleaning and overall better materials & services.
• Nursing-care: mostly receiving more money when you need it the most.

In 2021 the dental insurances alone had nearly 18 million members, showing how far these kind of insurances are in usage in Germany.

There are two in-patient add-ons you can take out:
1. Supplementary hospital insurance (“Krankenhaus-Zusatzversicherung”)
With this you are mainly buying:

• Free choice of hospital
• Private room
• Head physician treatment, i.e. free choice of treating doctor
• And a few small benefits

The premiums depend on
a) your age and b) the scope of coverage but here a rough overview:

2. Hospital daily cash (“Krankenhaustagegeld”)

• The benefit here is simple: Money.
• You can choose an amount of money you receive for every day that you are in a hospital, so that longer hospital stays do not drain your finances.
• The premium of course depends on how much money you want to receive:

• Alternative practitioners: Most GKV-carriers do not cover anything that goes beyond “traditional” modern medicine. Adding the alternative practitioners module gives you coverage for treatments such as osteopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture and traditional Chinese Medicine. In most cases, the add-on lets you spend a set amount each year on these treatments.
• Visual aids: GKV only contributes to the cost of glasses etc. for adults if they have a severe visual impairment. This add-ons, similar as above, enables you to spend a given amount of money per year for glasses, contact lenses, eye laser surgery (Lasik), etc.
• Preventative measures: the ministry of health gives very specific guidelines about what is covered and when you want more than that, you have to pay for them yourself.

The premium naturally depends on the scope of coverage, but to give you a broad idea:

There are four main pieces of coverage:

• Dentures (Zahnersatz): implants, bridges, crowns, inlays, dentures, veneers etc.
• Dental treatment: things such as high quality fillings and root canal treatments.
• Preventative measures: teeth cleaning, prophylaxis, bleaching and more.
• Orthodontic services: such as braces for children and adolescents.

The table below shows you a few examples of dental costs and the regular reimbursements:

The costs of treatment naturally need to keep in balance with the costs for such insurances:

There are three types of nursing-care add-ons:

• Daily cash: you receive a given amount of money for each day you need care.
• Nursing costs insurance (“Pflegekostenversicherung”): Covers the gap between what the PVN pays and what the actual costs are.
• Nursing pension Insurance: Similar to a private pension plan, you will receive a guaranteed, lifelong pension if you are in need of nursing care.