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The answer to this topic greatly depends on your visa status and how you are health insured now (in your home country):

1. If you are employed and earn below certain thresholds, you must join the German public health insurance scheme. The various insurers are largely same, so just apply at any one of your liking. The fee is approx 17% of your salary and the company pays half of that. In the public scheme, family members (spouse and children) without own income are covered free of charge.
2. If  you earn above the threshold AND are currently in a public scheme in your home country (or publicly insured when you left Germany last), you can choose to join the public scheme voluntarily. The fee is the same percentage, but your company pays less than half.
3. If you are self-employed AND are currently in a public scheme in your home country, you can also join the public scheme voluntarily. Again, you pay the full fee from your pocket - and there is a minimum of approx. 250 €/month.
4. In all other cases, you must join a German private health insurer (it's compulsory, foreign or expat insurers do not normally qualify). There, no dependants are covered (you pay per person), the fee is based on your age, current health and prior conditions and is usually higher than the public scheme (unless you are young, single and healthy) - for the elderly, it can reach several thousand €/month. Consult several insurers (or engage an independent adviser - independent means you pay his fee, not the insurer!) to find a tariff suitable for you.

And yes, it is compulsory in Germany for all residents to be health insured by the above rules. There is not point delaying or avoiding it, because you will later be retroactively charged from the day you moved here (without having any benefits for the time already lapsed).

If you are insured, however, all medically necessary treatments are covered in full (with no maximum or limit). It's a system based on societal solidarity (the healthy co-finance the sick) and great for peace of mind.

Oh, and since you asked where to get insured, here is a list of all public insurers:

And here is one of the private insurers:

If you are overwhelmed by this (which is almost inevitable), just apply at any public one, or engage an independent adviser for private ones.

Thank you very much. My wife and I are retired. We are Australian/ British citizens, we have duel citizenship. Our daughter lives in Berlin and works on a blue card. We are applying for a long stay visa. I am 79 and my wife is 63. I dare say it is going to be quite expensive!!!

There are online portals like the below, calculating the cost of private health insurance. There, you can get a price indication and see which factors influence it. But for the actual contract, please do not do it online, but with an (independent) adviser.

(You won't be the first to find that the cost of private health insurance makes moving to Germany unfeasible for an older person - so by all means try to get into the public scheme, which is capped at approx. 800€/month and does not go up with age!)

@resanders

What do you mean by a long term visa? Indefinite? How long is critical.

The normal limit to come to Schengen for tourism is 90 days. Germany seems to have a agreement with a couple of countries allowing a longer time; like 6 months. To stay longer one usually needs a pathway to residency.

Even tourists should have travel insurance that covers medical emergencies. So called expat insurance is usually a form of this but limited to 12 months and with questionable legality rolled over again in some situations if one stays longer. So I think one can find an affordable option for up to 12 months. For a longer stay, like Beppi emntioned; one officallly has to get a German policy, which at such ages can only be private and likely expensive. This is one reason that Germany doesn't really attract retirees from outside of Schengen.