Cancellation
Cancelling DAK
If you switch, you don’t do it yourself.
If you switch from DAK to another public health insurer, you don’t need a cancellation letter: the new insurer reports the switch. You only cancel yourself if you do not choose a new public insurer, for example when moving to private health insurance.
Author: Jan Ortgies · As of 11 November 2026 · If a switch comes about through our comparison, we receive a fee from the new insurer, not from you.
Switching
From DAK to another public insurer
- 1. Choose the new insurer
- You apply for membership with the new health insurer. You don’t have to declare anything else to switch.
- 2. The new insurer reports it
- It notifies DAK electronically. This notification replaces your cancellation.
- 3. Confirmation
- DAK confirms the end of your membership within two weeks, to the new insurer, not to you.
- 4. Let them know
- Tell whoever registers you: usually your employer, otherwise the employment agency (Agentur für Arbeit) or the job centre. Pensioners and students don’t need to report anything; the new insurer does that.
- Deadline
- The switch takes effect at the end of the month after next. If your membership application reaches the new insurer in November, you are with it from 1 February.
- Minimum membership
- If you chose DAK yourself, you are tied in for twelve months. The tie does not apply after a contribution increase (see below) or when your membership ends by law, for example when you change jobs: you can then choose another insurer within two weeks of starting the new job, with no notice period. You can also apply to the new insurer before the twelve months are up; the switch then takes effect when the tie ends.
- Cancelled yourself anyway?
- According to guidance from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), your own cancellation letter to DAK has no legal effect when you switch insurer. The notice period only starts running once the new insurer has received your application.
Special right to cancel
DAK raises the contribution: switch earlier
- When
- If DAK raises the additional contribution or charges one for the first time, you can switch even before the twelve months are up.
- By when
- Your membership application must reach the new insurer by the end of the month for which the higher contribution first applies. Example: increase on 1 January, application by 31 January, new insurer from 1 April. Until then you pay the higher contribution. It is quicker if you switch in December, once the increase has been decided and announced: you are then with the new insurer from 1 March.
- No letter any more
- Since 30 July 2026 the insurer no longer has to write to you specifically when it raises the additional contribution. So check for yourself around the turn of the year.
- Exception
- With an optional sickness benefit tariff (Wahltarif Krankengeld), the special right to cancel does not apply.
Cancelling yourself
When you have to cancel with DAK yourself
- Private health insurance – you are a voluntary member (freiwillig versichert), for example as an employee above the income threshold or as a self-employed person
- You cancel yourself with DAK. Membership ends at the end of the month after next, and the twelve-month minimum does not apply here. The cancellation only takes effect if, within that period, you prove that you have other full health insurance (a policy that replaces public insurance). A supplementary policy is not enough. The insurer must confirm your cancellation within two weeks. If you have an optional tariff, its tie of one or three years still applies. If the proof does not arrive in time, your membership simply continues and in the worst case you pay twice. So set the start of the private insurance for the day after the confirmed end date.
- Salary above the threshold, becoming a civil servant, starting self-employment
- When your compulsory insurance ends, cover continues automatically as voluntary membership, and DAK writes to you. If you want to leave, you declare this within two weeks of that notice and prove other cover. If you miss the two weeks, only a normal cancellation to the end of the month after next remains. Until then you keep paying the voluntary contribution, even if your private insurance is already running. So send the declaration immediately; you can hand in the proof later. With salary, compulsory insurance does not end at once but only at the end of the year, and only if your salary is also above next year’s threshold. For 2027 that threshold is being raised by an additional €3,600. If you want to stay publicly insured, you don’t need to cancel. But do answer the insurer’s income questionnaire: without proof it charges the maximum contribution.
- Family cover (Familienversicherung: cover through your spouse’s or parent’s public insurance)
- If your job ends and you meet the requirements, compulsory membership ends by itself. Your spouse or parent, as the member, then registers you for family cover with their insurer. Do this promptly, otherwise your insurer first treats you as a voluntary member with your own contribution. If you are voluntarily insured, you cancel yourself. The twelve-month minimum then does not apply. By law membership ends at the end of the month after next; the insurer’s rules (Satzung) may allow an earlier date.
- Moving abroad
- This depends on the individual case: the country, and whether you keep working in Germany, are posted abroad or draw a pension. By law, voluntary membership does not end by itself when you move away. Without cancellation, contributions normally continue even though your entitlement to benefits is usually suspended abroad. Clarify this in writing with DAK before you move: whether you have to cancel, which proof it needs, such as the deregistration certificate (Abmeldebescheinigung), and on which date membership ends. Insurers handle this differently.
- Death
- Membership ends on death; relatives do not have to cancel. They should inform the insurer, though. Anyone covered through the deceased’s family insurance receives benefits for one more month at most. After that, cover normally continues automatically as their own voluntary membership with their own contribution. Contact the insurer during that time.
Form
Writing the cancellation: form and sample text
The law does not prescribe a form for the cancellation. It makes sense to use a route where you can prove receipt: the insurer’s online form or app with a confirmation, or a letter. Many insurers ask for written notice anyway. For the notice period, what counts is when the cancellation reaches the insurer. Align the start of your new cover with the end date the insurer confirms to you. The German text below is only meant for cases where you do not choose a new public insurer.
Kündigung meiner Mitgliedschaft
Versichertennummer: …
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
hiermit kündige ich meine Mitgliedschaft zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt.
Grund: [zum Beispiel Wechsel in die private Krankenversicherung].
Den Nachweis über meine anderweitige Absicherung im Krankheitsfall
[füge ich bei / reiche ich innerhalb der Kündigungsfrist nach].
Bitte bestätigen Sie mir den Eingang und das Ende der Mitgliedschaft.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
[Name, Anschrift, Datum]
Contact
How to reach DAK
- Additional contribution 2026
- 3.20%
- What the insurer says
- DAK-Gesundheit offers the online application “Freiwillige Versicherung beenden” (ending voluntary insurance), which requires a login. We did not find a separate public page on cancelling.
- Postal address
- DAK-Gesundheit Zentrale, Nagelsweg 27–31, 20097 Hamburg
- Official pages
- DAK-Gesundheit: online applications (German)
Information from the insurer’s website, retrieved on 10 November 2026. Routes and addresses can change; the insurer’s own information is decisive.
Good to know
Optional tariffs and withdrawing
- Optional tariffs
- Bonus-payment and cost-reimbursement tariffs tie you in for at least one year, deductible and sickness benefit tariffs for three years. You normally cannot cancel before then. If the contribution rises you still can, except with the sickness benefit tariff. For special hardship cases the insurer’s rules must provide a special right to cancel the tariff. If your membership ends by law, for example when you change jobs, the tie to the tariff ends too.
- Staying after all?
- In the insurers’ practice, you can withdraw a declared switch as long as the notice period is running, so before the new membership begins. You tell your current insurer informally.
- Ill or in treatment?
- What applies when switching while ill →
Other insurers
Cancelling other health insurers
FAQ
Questions about cancelling DAK
Do I have to cancel DAK myself if I switch insurer?
What is the notice period with DAK?
Can I cancel DAK straight away if the contribution rises?
Do I need a form or a signature?
How do I cancel DAK to go private?
Do I have to cancel after a death?
What does your help cost?
This page is general information based on our own research, without guarantee, and does not replace professional advice, nor information from the insurer. Moving abroad, becoming a civil servant and private health insurance in particular depend on the individual case.
Sources: § 175 SGB V · § 188 SGB V · § 190 SGB V · § 191 SGB V · § 53 SGB V · § 19 SGB V · BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 228 · GKV-Spitzenverband, guidance on the choice of insurer (2 Dec 2022)
Why is the comparison free?
The comparison and advice on statutory health insurance cost you nothing. If a switch comes about through us, we receive remuneration from the new health insurer; our partner VGK24 may also pay us for enquiries – not you. Your contribution is the same as if you switched directly with the insurer, and you enter into no obligation.
for the comparison
You don't have to cancel your old health insurance yourself. Your new insurer handles the entire cancellation. You just briefly tell your employer which insurer you're switching to – the new insurer then sends them the membership certificate (Mitgliedsbescheinigung) electronically.
The entire switch happens online. No public office, no fax, no waiting room. Your membership application takes just a few minutes to submit online.
All statutory health insurers open nationwide are obliged to accept members – with no health check and no waiting period. Company health insurers (Betriebskrankenkassen) may be restricted to certain groups of people.