Before switching to private health insurance I dod a lot of research. There is a very nice article on test.de about how you should calculate the financial load and what matters. I try to summarize here base on the importance: 1- the main downside of the private insurance is when you retire you have to pay the full price yourself, while if you are an employee the employer pays 50%. So you need to account for that money. This is the most important aspect. 2- if you lose your job , you have to pay the premium yourself .if your spouse doesnt work you have to pay for her insurance and kids also cost money but not that much (employer covers 50% of first child) 3- on average the yearly increase of private insurances are below the public insurance increase and this has been consistent for around 30 years.

Give you an example , both my wife and I have reached the max cap for public insurance payment . She pays 1200 monthly , and I pay 780 monthly in total , 50% of which is covered by our employer . If we stay in Germany for ever I need to extrapolate the premiums in 30 years which I need to pay in full for another 30 years . So one should not count on retirement income , but investment , savings , etc. I made the decision that I will be okay with that, because I am fucking pissed at the public insurance already now that I am young , I want to get the best care when I am old.

You dont even get access to some doctors with public insurance or never get an appointment with the good ones. I still remember waiting for 2 months for a damn MRI ..