What Your Berlin Krankenkasse Actually Costs You
Forty-six statutory health funds are open to a Berlin address and the only figure that differs between them runs from 2.18 to 4.39 per cent. Put in your gross pay and say how you are insured, and the tool plots every one of them on a single euro axis so you can see what the fund you are in costs you against the cheapest one you could actually join.
Rates and openness come from the GKV-Spitzenverband Krankenkassenliste of 14 September 2026, which records every statutory fund with its Zusatzbeitragssatz and the federal states it is open in. Contribution rates and ceilings come from the same body’s Rechengroessen factsheet for 2026: general rate 14.6 per cent, reduced rate 14.0, assessment ceiling 5,812.50 euro a month. Funds marked betriebsbezogen are left out because only the staff of that company may join them. Pflegeversicherung of 3.6 per cent, or 4.2 if you are childless and over 23, is identical everywhere and is not part of the comparison. Checked on 14 September 2026. This is a reading aid, not insurance advice.
Start by saying how you are insured, because the arithmetic is different in each case: an employee pays half of everything, a voluntarily insured freelancer pays all of it, and a student under 30 pays a flat sum that does not move with income at all. Then put in your gross pay and pick the fund you are in now. The plot puts every open fund on one euro axis, shades the distance between yours and the cheapest, and the panel underneath turns that distance into a figure per year.
Only one number is a decision
The general contribution rate of 14.6 per cent is fixed by law and the catalogue of treatment is written into the Sozialgesetzbuch, so it is the same in every fund: same doctors, same hospitals, same prescriptions, same co-payments. The Zusatzbeitrag is the single figure each fund sets for itself, and in 2026 it runs from 2.18 per cent to 4.39 across the funds a Berlin address can join.
Not every cheap fund will take you
The official register marks each fund either bundesweit, open in a named list of states, or betriebsbezogen, which means only the employees of that company may join. Thirty-four funds are open nationwide and twelve more list Berlin among their states, so forty-six are genuinely available here. Some of the cheapest rates in a national comparison table belong to company funds you cannot reach.
The local names are not the cheap ones
AOK Nordost, the regional fund for Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, charges 3.50 per cent and is the 22nd cheapest of the 46. Innungskrankenkasse Brandenburg und Berlin charges 4.35 per cent and is 45th. Both are chosen constantly because the name reads like the local answer, and the ministry benchmark of 2.9 per cent is beaten by only seven of the 46.
Two dates decide when you can move
Under section 175 SGB V you are bound to your fund for at least twelve months, and a change takes effect at the end of the second calendar month counted from the month you declare it. You never cancel yourself: since 2021 the new fund notifies the old one and there is no gap in cover. If your fund raises its Zusatzbeitrag you may move regardless of the twelve months, until the end of the month for which the higher rate is first charged.
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Health Insurance in Berlin: Which Krankenkasse You Can Actually Join and What the Gap Costs
Forty-six statutory funds are open to a Berlin address and the only figure that differs runs from 2.18 to 4.39 per cent. What the gap is worth at your income, and the two dates in section 175 SGB V that let you move.