About Us
Welcome to German Private Health Insurance (GPHI), a free, independent resource that helps English-speaking expats in Germany understand private health insurance (private Krankenversicherung, PKV) and get connected with a licensed, independent insurance broker. We are run by the team behind The Eye Newspapers in Munich, and we built GPHI as a service to the expat community we already write for every day.
What We Are — and What We Are Not
We want to be completely transparent about our role, because PKV is an important, long-term financial decision:
- We are not an insurer and we are not an insurance broker. We do not sell policies or give regulated insurance advice.
- We are a referrer (Tippgeber). We publish plain-English, well-researched guides about PKV, and — only if you ask us to — we introduce you to an independent, licensed German insurance broker (Versicherungsmakler under §34d GewO) who advises you directly and at no cost to you.
- Our service is free for you. We may receive a referral fee from a broker if an introduction leads to a consultation or policy. This never increases your costs and never influences the broker's independent advice. See our Impressum for the full compensation disclosure.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help expats, students, freelancers, and professionals make informed decisions about private health insurance in Germany. We aim to offer clear, accurate, up-to-date information about PKV in English, and to connect you with genuinely independent, licensed brokers — so the advice you receive comes from a regulated professional, not from a sales channel.
Meet the Team
German Private Health Insurance is run by William Smyth and Hannah Mones.
William Smyth is the Founder of The Munich Eye (@TheMunichEye) — which he launched in 2012 as the first weekly printed English-language newspaper in Germany. Over more than a decade he has reported on and helped the country's international community navigate life in Germany, from residency and work to the healthcare system. Read William's full profile →
Hannah Mones is a Senior Editor at The Munich Eye and The Germany Eye, part of The Eye Newspapers — a global network of English-language expat publications. She writes and edits extensively on the practical realities expats face when settling in Germany. Read Hannah's full profile →
Both are also involved with Who Needs Engineers, the expat engineering company in Germany (whoneedsengineers.com). Between them, Hannah and William have a combined 20 years of experience helping internationals relocate to and settle in Germany. GPHI grew directly out of the questions expats kept asking them about PKV — making it a natural extension of the journalism and community work they already do.
Our Broker Partners
The actual insurance advice is provided by independent, licensed brokers we trust. One of the brokers we work with is Nina Rinner (Versicherungskauffrau, AssKon UG (haftungsbeschränkt) & Co. KG), an unabhängiger Versicherungsmakler (independent insurance broker) licensed under §34d GewO. Working with independent brokers — rather than agents tied to a single insurer — means the advice you receive can compare across the whole market. You can verify any German broker's licence in the official Vermittlerregister.
Our Commitment to You
We are committed to making PKV easy to understand and to connecting you only with regulated, independent professionals. Our guides are written and edited by our team, cite official sources, and show when they were last updated. For your actual insurance decision, we connect you with an independent licensed broker who advises you directly. If you ever spot something out of date or unclear, please tell us — we update our content regularly.