The German public insurance system provides comprehensive preventive care and excellent coverage for emergency treatment. But sometimes you might need a little extra support. This is where Zusatzversicherungen, or supplemental insurance policies, come in handy.
These policies are building blocks of sorts—for an extra fee, you can add them on to your standard public care package. They may be directly connected to the public Krankenkassen or you may shop around and buy an additional policy through a private provider. Whether you’re looking for additional health coverage while abroad or need coverage for visits to a naturopath, a supplemental policy can be helpful.
In this post, we cover some common options.
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Travel abroad
For travel within the EU, your German insurance will keep you covered. But if you go further afield, then you’ll need to get supplemental insurance to cover care costs.
For example, TK offers two supplemental insurance plans: one for travel of up to 60 days and another for travel beyond two months (e.g. for a study abroad semester).
Dental care
The Krankenkassen cover a significant portion of the costs (usually around 60%) for “medically necessary” dental care (e.g. root canals or wisdom tooth extractions). But you may want extra preventive care or full coverage for more advanced treatments (e.g. laser therapy for periodontitis). In this case, you could get one of Feather’s supplementary dental policies.
Dental insurance in Germany from €10.90 per month
Vision aids
There are many supplemental policies that cover vision aids, like glasses and contact lenses. With TK, two supplemental private packages (PraxisExtra and PraxisTop) cover up to €150 in vision aids over two subsequent calendar years. If you’d prefer to see other options, you can search for “Zusatzversicherung Sehhilfe” or “Brillenzusatzversicherung”.
Alternative medicine
The Krankenkassen don’t cover the costs for care by Heilpraktiker, or alternative medicine practitioners. These generally include acupuncturists, chiropractors, herbalists, and osteopaths, among others. But if you don’t want to pay out-of-pocket for alternative therapies, there are some supplemental insurance plans you can use.
TK’s supplemental private packages cover some Heilpraktiker costs (up to 80% of visit costs amounting to a maximum of €1000 over two subsequent calendar years), but you can search for “Heilpraktikerzusatzversicherung” to see other options.
Premium hospital stays
Is the idea of sharing a hospital room with multiple other patients massively unappealing to you? There’s supplemental insurance for that! With hospital stay insurance, you can guarantee top-quality care, including a stay in a single- or double-bed room and treatment by head doctors. TK has its own options, or you can search for “Krankenhauszusatzversicherung” to check out additional policies.
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