On September 11, 2026, WirtschaftsWoche published its annual comparison of comprehensive private health insurance. The analysis firm Morgen & Morgen prepared it exclusively for the magazine. It examined plans for employees using two model cases: a 30-year-old and a 40-year-old.
The occasion is the reform of statutory health insurance. The Contribution Stabilization Act passed in July brings higher out-of-pocket costs for medicines, fewer benefits for dentures and the removal of homeopathy. At the same time, the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze BBG · BeitragsbemessungsgrenzeThe contribution ceiling of statutory health and long-term care insurance. Income above this amount is not used to calculate contributions.More about BBG → is rising. Together, this makes high earners in particular think about a switch to private health insurance.
How the test worked
The preselection ran through the benefits rating. Only plans that had reached five stars, the highest score, in the M&M rating for comprehensive private health insurance made it into the price comparison.
| Criterion | Requirement in the test |
|---|---|
| Deductible | at most €500 per year |
| Dentures | at least 70 percent reimbursement |
| Hospital accommodation | single room |
| Benefits rating | five stars in the M&M rating for comprehensive private health insurance |
| Weighting | two thirds benefits, one third premium |
One detail of the method matters for understanding the results: to make plans with different deductibles comparable, the deductible was added to the monthly premium in the calculation. As a result, a plan without a deductible is not automatically rated better than one with €500.
What came out of it
For the 30-year-old, eleven plans received the top mark of “excellent”. The monthly premiums without the calculated surcharge range from €605.45 to €1,025.09. First place goes to Allianz with a monthly premium of €755.27, a deductible of at most €500 and 75 percent reimbursement for dentures.
For the 40-year-old, the range is from €733.49 to €1,203.73. Here, thirteen plans get the top mark, because two more companies join the eleven from the first comparison.
Besides Allianz, plans from Ottonova, uniVersa, AXA, Hallesche, Münchener Verein, LKH, SDK, BBKK, UKV and Barmenia reach the top mark, and for the 40-year-old also Gothaer and Signal Iduna. The full table with all premiums is in the source.
The spread is notable. For the 30-year-old, there is a difference of around €420 per month between the cheapest and the most expensive plan with the same mark. All eleven meet the same minimum requirements and carry the same rating.
The second test: what you actually get in a claim
Morgen & Morgen also simulated what the reimbursement promises mean in practice. For a 30-year-old policyholder, fictitious doctor and hospital bills were calculated, and the expected reimbursement was determined on the basis of each plan’s insurance conditions.
| Scenario | Assumed costs | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Low health costs | €628 per year: five visits to the family doctor, one visit to a specialist without referral, three prescriptions at €20 each, one dental treatment at €118 | 16 insurers “excellent”, led by Ottonova, uniVersa, AXA and Hallesche |
| Medium health costs | €7,538 per year, of which €4,850 for seven days in hospital in a single room with private doctors’ fees | 14 insurers “excellent”, particularly good: Allianz, LKH and SDK |
In the first scenario, the costs can in principle be reimbursed in all plans considered. The difference arises only from the agreed deductible, and that is a deliberate decision of the policyholder, not a flaw of the plan.
In the second scenario, the difference becomes visible. One example from the study: in a plan with a €500 deductible, the assumed services would be fully reimbursable, and the policyholder pays exactly their deductible. In another plan, the deductible is zero, yet €350 remains with the policyholder, because the plan does not cover these services.
This is the real finding of the test. A low deductible says nothing about whether a bill will be paid in the end. What matters is which share of the costs is reimbursable at all.
What a ranking cannot check
A test works with fixed criteria. That makes it comparable and incomplete at the same time. Points that regularly decide the choice of plan in our advice do not appear in the test requirements:
- reimbursement of doctors’ fees above the standard maximum rates of the fee schedules GOÄ and GOZ
- medical aids, that is, whether the catalog of medical aids is open or closed
- remedies such as physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy
- psychotherapy, reimbursement levels and limits on sessions
- rehabilitation and follow-up rehabilitation after hospital
- treatment in private clinics
If you need one of these benefits, you can be worse off with the test winner than with a plan that does not appear in the ranking at all. Which criteria we apply instead is explained in the article on the best private health insurance and, for your occupational group, under best private health insurance for employees.
There is also a second blind spot. Only the upper benefits segment was tested. For many employees, a solid mid-range plan with good option rights is the economically smarter decision, especially if their income is still expected to grow. These plans do not appear in a test that starts at five stars.
The time pressure comes from statutory health insurance, not from the test
For employees, the second message of the article is more important than the ranking. Because of the extraordinary increase in the Versicherungspflichtgrenze 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 →, according to the Association of Private Health Insurers, employees will have to earn €84,150 gross next year before a switch to private health insurance is possible at all. The threshold is rising by 8.7 percent.
The final value is only fixed with the ordinance on social insurance calculation values. How the Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze works and which parts of your salary count, we have explained separately. The exact figures for next year are in our news item on the income thresholds for 2027.
On the other side, the maximum contribution in statutory health insurance is rising. The article puts it at around €1,370 for next year. All plans rated in the test are below this for a 30- or 40-year-old. The expert quoted puts this into perspective himself: private health insurance is not a model for saving on premiums, but a question of medical care. We agree, for a sober reason. Today’s premium advantage is no promise for the next thirty years. What matters is the premium stability of the plan you choose.
Our assessment
The test is done properly, and the method is disclosed. Both are more than many rankings offer. As a guide to which companies in the premium segment are currently calculating strong benefits, it is useful.
It is not suitable as a basis for a decision, for a reason that has nothing to do with the quality of the test: it does not know you. For us, the health questions come before every plan comparison. A premium from a table is only your premium if the insurer accepts you on these terms. From more than 5,000 applications with health questions that we have handled, we know that companies assess the same medical history differently. That is why we first clarify whether you can be insured through an anonymous risk enquiry.
Conclusion
Eleven and thirteen plans with the mark “excellent”, a premium range of over €400 per month with the same rating, and a claims test showing that a deductible of zero does not protect you from paying part of the costs yourself. That is the substance of this study.
A test winner is a guide. Which plan suits you depends on your state of health, on the benefits you actually need, and on whether the premium will still be affordable in thirty years.
Frequently asked questions
Is the test winner automatically the best plan for me?
No. A ranking checks fixed criteria against a model customer. Your age, your state of health and the benefits that matter to you are not part of any ranking. A plan that reimburses 75 percent for dentures can be the wrong choice for you, even if it wins a test.
Why do the same companies always appear in such tests?
Because the preselection runs through a benefits rating. A plan that does not reach the top mark in the rating never gets into the price comparison. This is methodologically sound, but it leaves out the entire middle segment of plans, which can make more economic sense for many employees.
Does a good test position say anything about future premiums?
No. The test looks at the premium at the time of the study. How a plan develops over thirty years depends on its calculation, on the pool of policyholders and on how costs develop. That is a separate check.
