Health Care, again. Great ideas from a DU post on the German System

[TayTay]

that has a report from an American doctor working in Germany. This is the heart of what I want. I want a public option too, but if we can't get it, we have to have these points in place, at a minimum, to improve our system.

Here in Germany you are mandated to have standard comprehensive health insurance:

your employer pays half the monthly family premium, you pay the other half,

• you don't get rejected because of any previous condition,
  
• you don't pay more or less working for a large or small business,
  
• you don’t pay more or less if you are male or female, black or white, German or foreign born, gay or straight,
  
• the rates don't go up if someone in the small (or large) business gets sick,
  
• health insurance is not a consideration when changing jobs or careers because you take the policy with you,
  
• you don’t lose your policy if you get sick, if you become unemployed, or even if your employer goes out of business,
  
• you won’t be billed for “out of network” services in hospitals or elsewhere - these services are part of your coverage, no matter which hospital or team of doctors treats you,
  
• you don’t have annual, lifetime, disease-related, or disease-recurrence caps,
  
• you won’t be billed at 20%, 30% or more for expensive medications (“price-tiered” pharmaceuticals), because there is no "tiering", legally approved pharmaceuticals are fully covered when you need them, even if they're very expensive,
  
• nor will you ever go bankrupt due to unpaid and unaffordable medical bills piling up, - that simply doesn't happen – you enjoy completely comprehensive coverage.
  
• Also, forget expensive copays ($40/year max. for doctor visits @$10 per quarter, a few dollars per prescription, a minimal meals expense during a hospital stay.
  
• Forget too the denials, the constant slog of endless 0800 calls (yours and your doctor’s) to your insurance company for requests for coverage or adjustments, wasting huge amounts of people's time, energy, and productive capacity every business day - this doesn't happen in Germany, because this is a comprehensive coverage system (which is an important reason why it's so efficient).
  
  http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8594561&mesg_id=8594561

The health care debate is loud, full of misinformation and divisive. Goals can get lost in discussions over the parts of the debate. These bullet points are my bottom line for what I want. I don't know if we will get them, especially the pharmaceutical reform on drug prices, but this is my minimum for reform. The public option would also be great. I think it would help reinforce and secure these reforms. I hope and pray we get it and I have showed up at Town Meetings and made phone calls for it. But I could vote for a bill that didn't have it if it was on the way to securing the points above.

So, what say you on this? Health care is a very heated topic, as we have seen. I have my differences with some who I think have been overly harsh with their language on some of the liberal blogs. I don't think the belittling language that equates people with a different opinion to historical political monsters is quite the way to hold a dialogue. But, I think we still have a lot in common in terms of what we want in the way of reforms, at a minimum. (The at a minimum is important. )

[beachmom]

1. Thanks for this. I will add that there are problems in the German system (costs

are going up there just like everywhere else), but that I find my family's complaints about it kind of funny. They'll talk about how they got stuck paying for something (like additional physical therapy). I say how much? And it's less than a $100 they are talking, about something that is kind of minor and not a recurring thing.

I would just love it if the insurance companies were more heavily regulated. A public option strikes me as a band aid, to cover up the poor situation with private insurance. I don't really care what it is called, just make it affordable and dependable, and not be something you lose when you change jobs or lose a job.