Free Choice, With a Catch
A self-employed restaurant or gastronomy owner can choose PKV from the start, since the free-choice rule for the self-employed applies. The catch is not eligibility but cash flow. Hospitality income is seasonal and thin-margined, so the way you structure cover matters more than the fact that you can have it.
Building Cover Around the Business
- Daily sickness benefit: if you are ill and the kitchen cannot run without you, a Krankentagegeld tariff replaces lost income. This is central for an owner-operator.
- Sustainable premium: pick a premium you can meet through the quiet season, rather than only in a good month.
- Excess choice: a higher excess lowers the premium but adds a bill in a year you claim, so match it to your reserves.
- Comprehensive cover: physical, on-your-feet work makes good treatment cover worth having.
The owner is the business: in a small restaurant, your health and the takings are the same thing. A daily sickness benefit that matches what a fortnight closed would cost you is the protection that earns its premium.
Practical Steps
Set the daily sickness benefit against the real cost of you being unable to work, choose an excess your reserves can absorb, and confirm the premium fits the leanest months. A broker who understands variable self-employed income can build the package so it holds up across the trading year rather than only when business is good.
Frequently Asked Questions
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