I gotta say...as an ex-pat family living in Germany basically on the German health care system, we pay through the nose for health care here out of our taxes. But so far, no complaints with the service/treatment that we’ve received. I had a bike accident this week and thought my foot was broken. We went to the ER, paid our 10 euro co-pay, and I was treated & released in less than 90 minutes. My husband once needed an “all clear” report so that he could make a trip to India...on a Friday afternoon at 1 pm, he made an appt. with a Kidney doctor (last test had shown protein in his urine). The doctor saw him immediately, and by 6 pm he had his lab results back, clearing him for travel. So far the only problems we’ve had has been getting to see an opthamologist. In our city, the waiting time was about 2 months. Then we tried a smaller village nearby, and got an appt. within 2 weeks. They have here at most doctors’ offices a “Sprechestunde”, which basically is a daily 2 hour window where you can just show up without an appointment. One last story...my dad came for a visit a few summers back. He seemed very weak & could hardly walk, so I took him to our doctor, who discovered that he was suffering from congestive heart failure, and sent us immediately to the hospital. They performed several tests, a few procedures (heart cath, ablation, etc.) My dad had some other problems, and ended up staying in the hospital for 3 weeks. They wouldn’t accept his insurance, so we had to pay in cash for all his treatment. His total bill (including doctors care, hospital, EVERYTHING was 6100 euros (basically $8300 at the time.) All in all, I think the German health care is much better than the British system. But we do pay through the nose...
Most Germans believe that poor Americans don’t receive any treatment. They don’t know that poor Americans & illegal aliens can be treated at a local ER. They are just mis-informed.
There are a lot of misinformed people on both aisles.
I lived in Germany for fifteen years, so I know the system. They’ve peaked out at a point on cost....where the consumer will go ballistic if they stretch it again. So they invented a new fee system, for monthly payments...totally separate from the normal cost. Every year...that fee goes up another $5-$8 a month.
Anger amongst German doctors and nurses? Well, yes. They are very hostile over the few pay raises they get. So they tend to leave, for Canada, the US, and Australia...or private clinics throughout Europe.
Refurbishing German hospitals? Well...it’s a on a slow pace because there just isn’t cash from the profits to do that. So you walk into one entrance and you feel like you are in 1950s Germany, then exit one hallway to feel like 1967, and then finally hit one hallway that feels like 1997.
Treatment? No one complains greatly about the treatment in German clinics or hospitals, although everyone seems to notice more third-world doctors and nurses operating in the system. Germans don’t like that. But if you want to keep the German professionals...you’d have to pay more.
As for the American system? A heck of alot of Americans have learned that you might make it five years without ever going to the doctor, so why bother paying $2k out of your pocket for a marginal health insurance policy via your employer? So they turn down the chance to have at least a marginal policy.
Then you have those fantastic doctors who prescribe tons of pain-killers....which you get addicted to....and eventually require a second and third doctor to help keep your legal but illegal habit going.
Toss in the folks who believe an emergency room is a routine place to show up for a problem that ought to wait until you see a regular doctor...then they get all shocked that the emergency room visit was $500.
Sports injuries over a weekend? Probably five times as many in a US hospital as a German hospital.
Weekend drug binges and visits to the local American emergency room? Probably five times what you’d have in Trier or Heldelberg. Who pays for the drug visitors? Well...the American who has no health insurance just laughs when the bill comes to the house because he’s not paying for it....so it gets tossed back onto the folks who routinely visit and make the cost appear on their bills instead.
If you ask me....all of the systems are screwed up. And in ten years...it won’t matter if you are German or American...you won’t have the same care that you had in 1995. We all will be getting less care, and asking why. The answer will not be a satisfactory one.