Monte and Hawk321,
How well does universal healthcare work in Germany? If you are sick, what are the wait times to see a doctor or a specialist? Do the unemployed remain on universal healthcare? What percentage of your yearly salary does the German government take out to cover healthcare? Have you heard of anyone go bankrupt after undergoing a surgical procedure or transplant in Germany?
Thanks,
Dave
Interesting questions actually. I do not follow US politics that rigourously, but I've come to understand that you guys are having an ongoing debate in these matters
.
First of, I'm from Belgium, and have lived in Germany for a little over 2 years.
I will however restrain from writing a lot about the German healthcare, because I'm no expert of healthcare systems, let alone the German ones. I wil leave that to our German counterparts here.
Second, any facts, numbers and percentages I write here are general indications. I've reviewed them again just now, but as anywhere else in the world, deviations and exceptions are the rule. The smartest and wealthiest people always find a way out of any obligation....
The Belgian aswell as the German universal healtcare work reasonably well I suppose. Although both countries (aswell as other EU countries) are having difficulty "holding ground". Expenses are rising dramaticly. In MY oppinion this is among others (but mainly) causes by the huge immigration wave that has been going on for some years now (a problem the US is no stranger to aswell, I understand).
When I got sick, In Belgium aswell as in Germany, I picked up the phone, made an appointment with a doctor, and most of the times was able to see him the same day. If I was not able to see one doctor the same day, I could call another one, and see if he was able to see me the same day.
Not exacly what your media is telling you, I suspect?
The unemployed "enjoy" the same universal healthcare.
The percentage of annual salary that goes to the universal healthcare is not very clear. Atleast in Belgium Healthcare resides under Social Security. The Social Security is financed with:
1. Employer contribution.
2. Worker contribution.
3. Taxes (part of the taxes that the goverment "earns" gets rerouted to Social Security).
To be clear, Social Security consists of :
1. Healthcare.
2. Pension.
3. 'Childcontribution' (for every child you have, you get a montly "incentive"
).
4. Unemployment.
5. Found for Workers disease.
6. Found for Work accidents.
7. Found for seaworkers (very small amount).
In Belgium:
1. Employer contribution is 32% of gross salary.
2. 13,07% of your gross salary goes to "Social Security".
3. Taxes are progressive from 33,6% up to 52%.
As you can see, the actuall percentage of a salary that goes to "The Universal Healthcare" is not an easy number or percentage. To me it is completly unknown.
However, you could state that about HALF of what your boss pays for you to work, goes to the goverment one way or another, in order to keep all of the social security measures running.
Since the Universal Healthcare as it is called in this thread, DOES NOT cover ALL health-related issues, it is possible to get into financial problems when faced with a serious illness.
Back in the day, it was decided that the basic healthcare would pay back a certain amount of the doctor- or hospital-bill. This means that the remaining part is to be payed by the patient. This is to assure that the patient does not "over-use" the system. It is a sort of a "thresshold".
For example, a normal consultation with your doctor, sets you back €21-24 (depending on what kind of numbers he puts on his little piece of paper).
Of that €21 you will receive an reimbursment of €17 by your healthcare organisation. Hence your "threshold-payment" is €4. That €4 is suppose to prevent you from visiting your doctor for no reason, and thereby "controlling" healthcare spending.
When you need to get really expensive treatments or diagnostics for example related to cancer etc... your "threshold-payment" can get really high. For some treatments or diagnostics you do not get any reimbursment.
For those expenses you can get an extra health insurance that is both available from the regular healthcare offices, aswell as the privately owned ones (banks for example offer those). Needless to say, the private ones are more expensive, but normally also have better coverage.
The "normal" doctor visits however are not covered by these extra insurances, only hospital bills (of course with the inevitable exeptions).
Because the basic healthcare is payed for tru your salary, the basic healthcare is obliged. The extra health insurance is NOT.
If you do not have these extra insurances (and sometimes even if you do) you CAN get into poverty if you happen to get a serious illness that is not or insufficiently covered.
The history behind the whole Social Security is actually a very noble one.
Somewhere during the industrial revolution, people slowly went from selfcontained farmers to factory-workers and craftsmen. Problem back then was, If you got sick, you did not get payed. Workers started coming together and agreed to each contribute €1 / month (oke, the euro isn't right, just as an example), and would help any fellow craftsman if he got sick and was unable to work. This basic system was based on a principle of solidarity. Although that word might have a strange ring to it in the US, it is actually a very noble principle. Help your fellow man.
As always and everywhere, people are greedy, and the system can only hold so much abuse. Both politicly and socially.
It is because of this abuse that these systems are under great stress for the last couple of years (an will be in the next), in Belgium, Germany and the rest of Europe.
The key to making it work is to cut out he abuse. Image a world....
This should clear up why the US-guys' garages are so much bigger then the EU ones'
