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Hi lespaul00,

I invite you to go through this article : /en/guide/europe/g … rmany.html
Please feel free to click on the links at the bottom and to go through these different websites, it might also help.

Wish you all the best,

Priscilla
½ûÂþÌìÌà team 

Any employee earning under the threshold ("Versicherungspflichtgrenze") of €60750/year (in 2019 - the figure is updated yearly) MUST join the German public health insurance - and of course pay the fees for it (around 15% of income, of which the employer contributes half).
Exceptions:
People who were member of the German private health insurance scheme continuously for five years or longer can apply for an excemption to stay on in their private insurance, even if they earn less.
And people above 55 years old CANNOT join the public health insurance scheme any more under most circumstances.  (Since the cost of private insurance increases with age and deteriorating health, most of them would otherwise like to change.)
Your wife can of course terminate her private insurance contract the moment she has to join the public scheme - as far as I know this must be allowed without notice period or penalty.

I think Beppi has given a good answer. I would add some details to the subject. Germany doesn’t allow employer provided health insurance like in the States. There it is a group insurance and the problem is that people lose their insurance when they leave or lose a job. German employers who hire over a certain number of people (I think it is 50) are required to pay half of one’s health insurance. And theoretically, a company is not barred from offering to pay 100% if they chose this as a perk.  And they could arrange this with a private insurance that they know the actual cost.  BUT this is still different than being insured through the company.
Like Beppi mentioned, your wife needs to clarify what her options are, if she can and wants to switch to a public option or stay privately insured. The main thing is that she is covered, secondary is exactly who pays for what. But one should find out if the present company would truly keep paying for a private insurance for her if she works elsewhere, make sure there is no condition that this would be dropped if she finds employment. And it honestly sounds quite unusual that a company would pay 100% of the insurance and even more so for a spouse. When one is on a public option, then a non-working spouse and minor children are included at no extra cost. In such a circumstance, private insurance is inevitably much more expensive – but sometimes there might be factors that one might not be eligible for a public option. Usually it is the default situation that most can go public but some might be able to elect for private coverage. 90% of people in Germany are on a public option. And if people want extra perks, there are additional private policies one can get to supplement their normal basic policy either private or public.

TominStuttgart wrote:

German employers who hire over a certain number of people (I think it is 50) are required to pay half of one’s health insurance.

Correction: All German employers, regardless of the number of employees. (Only those earning up to €450/month are exempted.)
And although you might be right that an employer could pay the whole health insurance premium (the second half would then be counted as employee's taxable income), I have never heard of such an arrangement and doubt it exists.

beppi wrote:

TominStuttgart wrote:

German employers who hire over a certain number of people (I think it is 50) are required to pay half of one’s health insurance.

Correction: All German employers, regardless of the number of employees. (Only those earning up to €450/month are exempted.)
And although you might be right that an employer could pay the whole health insurance premium (the second half would then be counted as employee's taxable income), I have never heard of such an arrangement and doubt it exists.

OK I stand corrected on there having to be a min. of employees. And I have also not heard of a German employer offering to pay 100% of heath care insurance cost but since it is not disallowed, one could imagine that it could be a strategy for employers specifically recruiting Americans who are used to such a perk. But this is correct that it would be seen as additional income for tax purposes.