Life in Germany

Visitor Health Insurance for Parents over 80 in Germany: Real Quotes for an 84-Year-Old, 90 Days

Your parents live outside the EU and want to stay with you in Germany. We compared four German visitor insurers that accept an 84-year-old, plus AXA Schengen, on price, pre-existing conditions and purchase deadlines.

Arrivals area, Terminal 1, Munich Airport.

Once your parents’ flights are booked, the next question is usually insurance.

Two years ago I flew back to Germany from Korea with my mother, and she stayed about five weeks. She was not yet 80, so I bought a Korean travel policy for her online in a few minutes. I chose 45 days to leave room for flight changes, and her medical cover was 20,000 US dollars each for illness and for accidents.

This year a friend whose parents are 84 asked me how I had done it. When we looked, the same route was blocked: above 80, many policies could no longer be bought online, or only covered accidents and not illness. So we looked at the German alternative: visitor health insurance for parents, bought by the family in Germany.

This article uses one example throughout: an 84-year-old parent who lives outside the EU and stays in Germany for 90 days. Prices were checked on each insurer’s official sign-up page in October 2026, and the cover was checked against the policy terms.

01 Who this is for, and whether your parents need a visa

This comparison is for parents who live outside the EU and the Schengen area. If your parents live in another EU country, their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from home already covers necessary treatment in Germany, so this is mainly a question for visitors from further away.

The first question is whether your parents need a Schengen visa.

ADAC, PROVISIT-VISUM and AXA state that their policies meet the Schengen visa requirement. For a visa, check with the consulate that will handle the application before you buy.

If your parents already have travel insurance at home, check two things first: the maximum age, and whether illness (not only accidents) is covered abroad. Older travellers mostly need cover for sudden illness.

02 Visitor health insurance for parents: four German insurers accept an 84-year-old

German insurers sell health insurance for guests from abroad, called incoming insurance (Incoming-Krankenversicherung). The usual setup is that the son or daughter living in Germany is the policyholder and pays, and the parent is the insured person.

Visitor policies still have age limits. HanseMerkur’s long-stay visitor policy, for example, only accepts people up to 74, so it is out for an 84-year-old. In October 2026 we confirmed four German visitor insurers that accept an 84-year-old: ADAC, ERGO, Allianz and DR-WALTER PROVISIT-VISUM.

03 For an 84-year-old staying 90 days, prices range from €311 to €846

The prices below are for one 84-year-old arriving on 21 November 2026 and leaving on 18 February 2027, a 90-day stay, with a policyholder living in Germany. All four were entered with the same details on each insurer’s official sign-up page. German policies charge men and women the same, so the price is the same for a mother or a father.

Prices for an 84-year-old, 90 days, captured from the four insurers’ official sign-up pages (15 October 2026).

For large bills such as a hospital stay or surgery, none of the four has an overall cap. Some treatment is excluded from the start, though, such as care for a condition your parent already had. The next section compares this insurer by insurer.

The difference shows up at the family doctor. Your parents are not in German public health insurance, so even with travel insurance a German doctor bills them like a private patient, using the official fee schedule (GOÄ) and usually charging 2.3 times the basic fee. ADAC, ERGO and PROVISIT-VISUM accept bills up to that level. Allianz only accepts up to 1.8 times. So when a doctor bills the usual rate, Allianz pays back about 80% and the family pays the rest. If the policy has a deductible, that amount is also taken off each claim. For a hospital stay in Germany, Allianz pays up to the standard public insurance (AOK) rate, so extras such as a single room are paid by the family.

ADAC charges the same price for everyone over 66, and at this age it only sells health and liability insurance together. You do not have to be an ADAC member, and the price is the same. The cover applies in the whole Schengen area, so your parents are still covered if they travel to a neighbouring country during their stay. Because the €311 includes liability cover (for damage your parent accidentally causes to someone else), choosing the same combination at ERGO (health, accident and liability) raises the ERGO price with deductible to €864. On a like-for-like basis, the gap is even bigger.

PROVISIT-VISUM’s basic health-only cover costs €6.50 a day plus a one-off €9.40 processing fee. The all-round version (Rundumschutz), which adds accident and personal liability cover, costs €6.70 a day from age 65, plus a processing fee. Treatments such as physiotherapy are only paid up to €250 for the whole stay.

Buy it for the whole stay from the start. According to the seller, if you extend the policy later, conditions that already existed at the time of the extension are not covered for the extra period. If your parents fly home early, the policy can be cancelled with written proof, and if the trip does not happen at all, it can be cancelled free of charge before cover starts.

04 At 84, read the pre-existing condition rules before the price

Visitor insurance covers new illness and accidents during the stay in Germany: sudden flu, a stomach bug, pneumonia, a fracture after a fall, an ambulance and a hospital stay.

The problem is conditions your parents already have. Whether a known condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes or angina is covered when it suddenly gets worse in Germany differs from insurer to insurer.

PROVISIT-VISUM is the only one whose terms explicitly cover a sudden worsening. That does not mean it pays for managing a chronic condition. It only applies to an acute, unexpected flare-up.

ADAC’s second clause also appears in the part of the terms about when cover starts and the waiting period. The wording alone does not make clear whether it applies when a parent who bought cover before arriving has a known condition flare up in Germany.

Among the four German visitor insurers, ERGO and Allianz exclude the most. ERGO excludes all treatment of known conditions, and Allianz’s terms only cover illness that arises during the trip. AXA Schengen goes further still: if your parent takes even one blood pressure tablet, emergency treatment linked to that condition may not be covered. For a parent with a managed condition, this wording will matter more than the price.

If your parent has a managed condition, email the insurer before you buy. Give the condition, whether it is currently stable, and the dates of the visit, and ask whether a sudden worsening in Germany would be covered. Keep the reply. An email does not replace the policy terms, though. The terms decide what is actually covered.

05 Buy before arrival and you keep all the options

Each policy has a different deadline. The longer you wait after arrival, the fewer policies are left.

Purchase deadlines by insurer, counted from the day of arrival.

Before arrival, all four are open. ERGO closes on the day of arrival, Allianz on day 2 and PROVISIT-VISUM on day 10. ADAC can still be bought up to one month after arrival, but only in person at an ADAC branch, and illness is only covered after a 7-day waiting period.

On the form, enter the name and German address of the son or daughter paying as the policyholder, and the parent’s name and date of birth exactly as in the passport as the insured person. ERGO’s sign-up system only accepts policyholders living in Germany, a country bordering Germany or Italy (ERGO email reply, October 2026). So a son or daughter living in Austria or Switzerland, for example, can also buy it.

For a longer hospital stay, the insurer can give the hospital a cost guarantee in advance. ADAC’s terms set this at €13,000. Allianz’s 2025 terms give no amount and only say it will issue a cost guarantee, or pay in advance if the hospital agrees. For anything the guarantee does not cover, the family may have to pay the hospital first and claim the money back later.

06 Visiting Europe without a host in Germany

Everything above assumes a son or daughter in Germany buys the policy. If your parents travel to Europe on their own, or with family from home, and nobody in Germany is hosting them, the first question is who is allowed to be the policyholder. Where a policy covers your parents and who is allowed to buy it are two different things.

AXA Schengen is a travel policy for people living outside the Schengen area. Its terms exclude residents of the UK and the US. There is no age limit and no health questionnaire, and it must be bought before the trip starts. AXA charges a higher rate from age 75. For an 84-year-old and the same 90 days, the quotes were Basic €134.33, Essential €242.42 and Premium €364.43, with medical cover of €30,000, €100,000 and €2,000,000. The price list on AXA’s website does not apply to an 84-year-old, so enter the real age on the sign-up page.

AXA quote for an 84-year-old (over-75 rate), 90 days, entered with a South Korean address (21 October 2026).

Basic and Essential cost less than the German visitor policies, but Premium costs more than ADAC (€311). The bigger difference is the pre-existing condition rule compared above, where AXA’s is the strictest of the five. PROVISIT-VISUM’s price list depends only on age and length of stay, so a parent living abroad pays the same €594.40 for the basic cover. The sign-up page did not display an amount with the Korean address, so this figure is calculated from the official price list.

Both cover France, Switzerland and Germany: PROVISIT-VISUM the whole EU plus Switzerland and a few other countries, AXA the Schengen area (Essential and Premium also the UK, Ireland and Cyprus). The seller, DR-WALTER, confirmed by email that visitors enter their home-country address and need no host in Germany and no visa. We tested with a South Korean address. If your parents live in another country, enter their own address on the sign-up page to check eligibility and price.

07 The deciding factor is your parents’ health

For parents over 80, the reason to buy insurance is the hospital bill that can arrive in a foreign country. That is why price, cover, pre-existing conditions and deadlines have to be read together.

ADAC is the cheapest German visitor policy, but its wording does not make clear whether a known condition that flares up in Germany is covered. PROVISIT-VISUM costs €283.40 more than ADAC, but its terms state that a sudden, unexpected worsening is covered. ERGO excludes all treatment of known conditions. AXA Schengen Basic and Essential cost less than the German visitor policies, but claims linked to a condition treated or medicated in the previous 2 years are not covered. At 84, a stable blood pressure or diabetes condition is common, so start by checking which medication your parents take.

If you only think of insurance after your parents have arrived, Allianz is still open within 2 days and PROVISIT-VISUM within 10 days. In that case, check the deadline and the date cover starts.