Health insurance costs for the whole family

After a brief hiatus we (family of 4) are returning to Germany at the end of 2008.

We previously lived in Germany and I always had the feeling that I was paying far too much for my medical insurance. We have historically had private cover and will take the same option again but I wondered if anyone has experience (ballpark) of what I should expect to pay on a monthly basis and who is regarded as the best provider.

For information myself and my wife are both in our 40's and my wife will not be working. The children are both Teenagers.

Appreciate any advice.

Cap Scarlet: why any broker (like me) will love to sign the whole family up for private health insurance, your description sounds like your best option would be to enter the family into public health insurance. However, since you most likely have not been a member of a EU public health insurance for at least 24 month during the last 5 years, voluntary membership is out of order for you. Therefore the question is: will you be working in Germany as employee or as self-employed. If the first is the case, you could still get into the public health insurance where your max contribution as employee for health insurance would be around 50% out of maybe 500.- EUR for coverage for the whole family. If you are self-employed, then indeed you'll be stuck with private health insurance.

As you can read in a number of threads here on Toytown about this, you might want to consult an independent broker (like me ) to work out your best options. In general I would recommend a high deductible for the husband, since men usually don't go much to the doctor anyway, in order to bring down part of the premium costs, and low deductible for wife and children.
Along this line you would have to expect for a normal coverage around 550-700 EUR monthly premium for the full family.

Cheerio