Children in private health insurance: cover, premiums and the Kindernachversicherung

Insuring children in private health insurance does not happen automatically. Every child needs an application of its own, a contract of its own and pays a premium of its own. There is no family insurance that covers children free of charge.

The requirement for regular acceptance without health questions is that at least one parent has already had comprehensive private health insurance for 3 months. Most insurers require this previous insurance period in their general terms and conditions of insurance. If it is not met, the simplified acceptance no longer applies, even within the two-month deadline.

The actual premium depends on the insurer and the chosen plan. As a guide:

Child plans do not build up ageing reserves, so the premium stays comparatively stable throughout childhood.

The legal basis for accepting newborns is § 198 VVG. This law obliges insurers to accept newborns and adopted children within 2 months of birth without health questions, provided one parent has comprehensive cover with the same insurer. The exact admission process is described on the page about the Kindernachversicherung.

The deadline starts on the date of birth and ends exactly 2 months later. What counts is the date on which the insurer receives the application, not the date it was sent. A letter that is still in the post on the last day of the deadline arrives too late. For parents, this means sending the application by registered mail or by email with a read receipt and keeping the proof.

Registering in time protects you fully, meaning without health questions, without waiting periods and without a risk surcharge, even for premature babies or children with documented findings from the pregnancy. This statutory protection is the decisive advantage of the deadline. If you miss the deadline, you lose this right. The child is then treated like a normal new applicant, with full health questions and possible consequences for pre-existing conditions.

If you insure children in private health insurance, you have to scale up the costs in a straight line. Each child is a separate contract, and the premiums add up.

With one child, this is a manageable amount for families with a good income. With two children, it remains affordable for households with two full earners above the Versicherungspflichtgrenze. Three children mark the threshold from which the statutory calculation becomes economically interesting, because family insurance in statutory health insurance costs €0 for all children below the income limit of €565 per month (2027: €590).

For comparison, the maximum contribution in statutory health insurance in 2026 is €1,226.44 per month. A sole earner above this limit pays no more than this amount in statutory health insurance and covers all children free of charge.

From over 5,000 applications with health questions, we know one mistake that keeps coming back. Parents choose the comfort plan for themselves and a cheaper entry-level plan for the child. In the short term, this saves premium. If the child is later, at the age of 12 or 15, to be brought up to the parents' level of benefits, new health questions are due. If an illness has occurred in the meantime, this leads to risk surcharges or blocks the plan upgrade.

We recommend choosing a child plan identical to the plan of the best-insured parent. Calculated over 20 years, the premium saving from a cheaper child plan is smaller than the cost of later health questions with a possible risk surcharge.

For families planning three or more children, a full family calculation before joining private health insurance is worthwhile. If you join private health insurance at 28, plan three children and realize at 35 that the family burden far exceeds the statutory alternative, you hardly have any options left to switch. For employees, a return to statutory health insurance is usually no longer possible from the age of 55.

Yes. In principle, a child can be privately insured even if both parents have statutory health insurance. This requires a private health insurance contract of its own. Health questions are required. Whether an insurer accepts children without a parent insured there depends on its acceptance guidelines.

The simplified Kindernachversicherung (i) without health questions, by contrast, only applies if at least one parent is already privately insured with the insurer concerned and the statutory and plan deadlines are met.

The child's contract continues unchanged. A divorce does not end the contract. If the parent or the insurance status of the caring parent changes, this can affect the obligation to pay the premium. In such cases, advice before the divorce agreements are concluded makes sense.

Yes. § 198 VVG expressly includes adopted children. The two-month deadline starts on the day the adoption becomes legally effective, not on the child's date of birth.

As soon as the child, after vocational training or university, is employed below the Versicherungspflichtgrenze (i)Versicherungspflichtgrenze · JahresarbeitsentgeltgrenzeThe annual income threshold in Germany. Employees who earn more than this per year may leave statutory health insurance and switch to private health insurance.More about JAEG →, it becomes compulsorily insured in statutory health insurance. The duty to be insured in private health insurance then ends, and the child can switch to statutory health insurance.

If you register in time within the two-month deadline under § 198 VVG, there is no risk surcharge, even for known illnesses. Outside the deadline, the illness is assessed, and a chronic illness can lead to risk surcharges or, in individual cases, to rejection. The exact terms depend on the insurer.