when socialized health care works
There was a very interesting piece on Morning Edition today about socialized health care in Germany. You can listen here.
Read the rest here.Morning Edition, July 3, 2008 · Mention European health care to an American, and it probably conjures up a negative stereotype — high taxes, long waiting lines, rationed care.
It's not that way in Germany. Very little tax money goes into the system. The lion's share comes, as in America, from premiums paid by workers and employers to insurance companies.
2 comments:
One thing not mentioned in the NPR story is that doctors in Germany make less money than any other European country (average $56K per year), which likely contributes to lower health care costs. One reason they can get away with paying doctors less is that education is free. The government pays for high school, college and medical school so MD's in Germany don't have any debt. Germany may invest fewer tax dollars in health care directly, but by paying for the education, it is still subsidized. Of course, the low pay for docs in Germany is leading many of them to leave to go work in the UK, but that's a story for another time.
Those are good points, Tracy, but since I am being crippled by health care expenses that my insurance isn't covering, I'm not feeling too sorry for my doc.
You I love though.
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