Millions of insured people affected
Additional contribution increases in the short term: Is this even legally permitted?
12/30/2025 – 11:47 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Many people with statutory health insurance are currently receiving mail from their health insurance company because they are increasing the additional contribution from January. Is this legal at such short notice?
The message begins like an advertisement on its own behalf. “As a progressive health insurance company, we are committed to a modern healthcare system – for example, urgently needed political reforms,” writes Germany’s largest health insurance company, the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), on December 29, 2025. However, if you read on, you will find out what will happen if these reforms are not implemented: “Therefore, our new additional contribution rate will be 2.69 percent from January 1, 2026.” This increases by 0.24 percentage points compared to 2025 – in just two days.
Many people with statutory health insurance are currently in the same situation as the more than twelve million TK members. They also receive letters in which their health insurance company announces a higher additional contribution from January. Some people may therefore ask themselves whether this is actually legal so shortly before the higher contribution comes into force.
The short answer is: yes, it is. The longer one: “Statutory health insurance companies must inform their members in a timely manner in a separate letter of the intended increase in the additional contribution. This must happen at least one month before the end of the month for which the additional contribution rate is increased,” says the consumer advice center. If a health insurance company increases the additional contribution on January 1st, it must inform its members about this by December 31st of the previous year at the latest.
In the meantime, health insurance companies were only allowed to inform their members about rising contributions via information on their website. Since mid-2023, however, they have again been obliged to communicate new additional contributions in writing – i.e. by post or digital letter. They must also point out that this gives them a special right of termination (Section 175 Para. 4 SGB V). And not only that.
In fact, the additional contributions from the health insurance companies sometimes vary greatly. Read here how many euros you can save if you switch to cheaper health insurance. You can use your special right of termination by applying for membership with a new fund by the end of January 2026. This will take care of the cancellation with the old fund and will accept you from April 2026. If your health insurance company fails to inform you of the higher additional contribution from January by December 31st, you can still cancel after January 31st.
