On September 22, the German government passed a resolution on health reform that constitutes a further step toward a two-class system of medical provision...
This, the eighth reform in 20 years, will not only lead to deteriorating medical care and increasing costs for the 70 million people in the state’s compulsory health system. Philipp Rösler (Free Democratic Party, FDP), the federal minister for health, is also setting the course for the total abolition of this kind of insurance, which originated in the 19th Century...
The contribution rate to the health fund, from which insurance firms receive their money, will rise next year from the current 14.9 percent of the gross wage to 15.5 percent (paid jointly by employer and employee). The former Social Democratic and Green federal government had already abolished the system of equal contributions in order to benefit employers.
According to the new regulations, from 2011 the insured will have to pay 8.2 percent and employers 7.3 percent of the total membership rate. From then on, the employer’s contribution rate will be “frozen”. All future contribution increases will then be financed solely by employees...
The draft law allows statutory health insurance funds to raise the rate of additional contributions, unrelated to the member’s income, when they need more finance than that assigned to them by the state health fund. Although the government avoids the term “capitation fee” (a per capita premium), the additional contributions amount to just that. The maximum charge was initially fixed at €75 per month....Whoever fails to pay an additional contribution should count on being fined....
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/germ-o05.shtmlsounds vaguely familiar...
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