Germany's Health Care : Quality Care for All

[Joanne98]

Run time: 04:43 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR0d1BrhIMk   Posted on YouTube: September 29, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 30, 2009 By DU Member: Joanne98 Views on DU: 663

 

With Congress back in session, debate over reforming the American health care system is once again in full swing. Supporters of universal health care want the U.S. system to be more like those in Europe, with the government taking an active role to guarantee coverage for everyone. Those who oppose drastic changes in the U.S. system say greater government involvement and universal coverage guarantees will push the U.S. toward socialism. Germans have the oldest universal health care system in Europe - its origins go back more than a century - and they are generally pleased with the care they receive. Is there a lesson there for America? VOA's Sonja Pace reports from the German capital, Berlin.

[DFW]

1. I owe my wife's life to Germany's health care system

She might have gotten care as good in the States. She might not have, as well. The most important thing is that
while she was battling her cancer, she had no worries whatsoever about unpaid bills, or insurance getting canceled
or whether or not the fact that she had had cancer would affect her ability to get insurance if she were to change
jobs, lose her job, or retire.

Yes, there are the inequalities of treatment if you are a "private" patient or not, but she is just a normal run of the
mill patient, and still she got fully comprehensive care when she was diagnosed. In Germany, when you have completed
the hard part of your cancer treatment (operation, chemo, radiation), you are also offered a month's stay at one of
a series of rehab clinics scattered about Germany that cater to patients according to their affliction. Her rehab clinic
was for breast and thyroid cancer, so most of (not all) the patients were women. They offer gymnastic training, aquatic
therapy, counseling, and hiking outside for endurance buildup. Full room and board for a month (spouses allowed to
visit overnight for the last weekend). German health insurance pays for the whole thing, even the train ticket from
your home to the rehab clinic and back. It's expensive, and I don't know if there any statistics on whether or not it
is a factor in reducing cancer recurrence, but my wife came back to me fully restored (except for her hair, and she got
that back, too eventually).

Ironically, the only problem I've ever had was when I had an emergency heart procedure done in Germany, and our American
insurer didn't want to reimburse me for it because it wasn't done by an "authorized" clinic. They even admitted that the
price of the procedure was a third of what it would have cost in the States--and then they STILL didn't want to cover it.

[evenso]

2. the "we're in it together" mentality does not exist in America.

Even though our ORIGINAL national motto is "E Pluribus Unum" - out of many one - the notion that we should be concerned for our countryman's welfare is not held by a majority here. In the 1950s the the rightwing brought us "In God we Trust", in case the original motto might inspire looking out for the common good. Providing for the "common defense" has given us a multi-trillion dollar military industrial economy that excerces great influence over our elected officials, but promoting the "general welfare" is viewed with severe limitations on policy.