The Reserves That Used to Trap You
Private premiums include Alterungsrückstellungen — ageing reserves the insurer sets aside in your younger years to cushion premiums later. For a long time these reserves were the golden handcuffs of PKV: change insurer and you left them all behind, effectively restarting the reserve-building clock and making a switch financially punishing. A 2009 reform softened this, introducing a portable component — but only partly, and the detail is where the decision lives.
What became portable: for tariffs from 2009 onward, a defined transfer value — the Übertragungswert, calculated at the level of the standardised Basistarif — can move with you to a new insurer. It is not your full reserve; it is the portion pegged to that basic-cover level.
What Moves and What Stays
- Moves: the Übertragungswert — the reserve portion corresponding to Basistarif-level cover — transfers to the new insurer when you switch
- Stays behind: reserves accrued above that basic level, built up in a richer tariff, generally remain with the old insurer and are not transferred
- Pre-2009 tariffs: reserves in older (pre-reform) tariffs are typically not portable at all — switching still forfeits them
Internal vs External Switching
This is why the distinction between switching within your insurer and switching to another insurer matters so much. A §204 internal Tarifwechsel keeps all your reserves — you stay with the same insurer, just change tariff. Moving to a new insurer only carries the Übertragungswert. So the usual first move for someone unhappy with their premium is to optimise internally, where the full reserve follows you, before considering an external switch that leaves part of it behind.
When an External Switch Still Makes Sense
Portability is partial, but that does not make external switching always wrong. For someone relatively young with modest accrued reserves, or where another insurer offers markedly better value or service, the transferable amount plus the fresh tariff can still come out ahead. The key is to quantify what you would leave behind: ask your current insurer for the Übertragungswert and the total reserve, so you can see exactly what stays before you decide.
The Bottom Line
Since 2009, switching PKV insurer no longer forfeits everything — a portable Übertragungswert, pegged to Basistarif level, moves with you — but the reserves built above that level, and reserves in older tariffs, stay behind. That is why internal §204 tariff changes (which keep all reserves) are usually the first lever, and why any external switch should start by asking exactly what your transfer value is versus what you would leave.
Frequently Asked Questions
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