They still pay taxes, though.
Germany allows people to opt out entirely, although there are a bunch of conditions and limitations. Most people don't, so the public system can still pay for itself.
Germany allows people to opt out entirely, although there are a bunch of conditions and limitations. Most people don't, so the public system can still pay for itself.
If you're avoiding paying into a system because you don't want to claim from it then letting you hop back on whenever you need it would destroy the system very quickly.
So if you were self-insured and broke a leg, then decided to switch back to insurance, you'd still be on the hook for the costs of the ongoing physiotherapy until it is healed back up. The insurance doesn't have to actually pay anything that happened before a switch (switching from public to public insurance or private to private doesn't have this limit, private to public and the other way round but you don't pay, your old insurance pays).
The only universal way to switch is to marry someone in public insurance.