Monday, June 15, 2009

Health Insurance


Germany has been considered to have one of the best health care system in the world. It provides its resident with comprehensive coverage .With its health insurance reform in 2007, it is now mandatory for everyone living in Germany to have health insurance. Why? Medication,Hospitals and doctors are extremely expensive. You need to secure yourself in times of sickness and emergencies. You can choose between state health insurance and private health insurance. The health insurers differ only slightly in the level of contributions collected and the services and coverage offered. The basic services covered are laid down by law. All employees below a certain income are obliged under law to publicly insured. If income is above, the individual can choose between public/state and private health insurers. Well, you might ask which is better among the two? The answer is it depends on your circumstances. Contribution on state health insurance is based on income,therefore if you have higher income then it would be cheaper to have a private insurance.And one of the greatest advantage in having a state insurance is, your family is included at no extra cost. On the other hand private health insurance is based on your risk profile, not your income. Women and older people in general pay higher contributions than young men. They have calculated it based on possible average cost for different groups. The best side of having private insurance is its scheme offers more extensive coverage including alternative therapies and treatments, glasses, contact lenses and other services that may not be available in state health scheme. Some doctors treated the private health insurer preferentially compared to state health insurer.


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6 comments:

Dhemz said...

wow! is it...good to know Mami Joe...here in the US as well..unlike satin sa pinas very opposite...dito sa US when I have Akesha...our health insurance covered all the hospital expenses like more than quarter a mil dollars...Akesha was born preemie...she stayed in the NICU for 5 weeks..and that was one of the devastating experience in my whole life...probably the most..glad she is perfectly fine...:)

nako kung sa pinas siguro...I don;t know where to find that amount of money...well kahit din dito..we dont have that much savings to pay for all the expenses...:)

Melissa said...

Thank you for sharing this. I have been discussing health care reform on my blog, for a while now. I like what your country does, but for the doctors can refuse public health options. I do not think this should be allowed. I hope the US will say to doctors that each doctor needs to accept a certain amount of public insured people as well. Otherwise it is unfair, and the poor still get the lesser care. Great post, by the way.

new illuminati said...

If it's mandatory then it must be free to be equitable - as we run the egalitarian system here in Oz.
Of course, if you like you can pay for PRIVATE health care(which is usually in no way superior...)
It's really very simple - what's the point of HAVING a government if it can't organise things so that they're of real benefit?
see
http://newilluminati.blog-city.com/
http://enlightenment.today.com
http://hermetic.blog.com
http://centraxis.blogspot.com

Joe-ann said...

@mommy dhemz,

great that Akesha is fine. yeah! I can imagine how a mother would feel to see her child in that condition.Surely mommy dhemz,if that happened in the Philippines,then you would probably face financial burden,our health insurance in the Philippines almost always has a limited coverage.Thanks dhemz for sharing your thought.

@Melissa

I would surely check your blog regarding health care reform. Yeah, there should be no preferences over private insured so as to be fair,I'm not however sure if the doctors are legally allowed to do this, but this is just based on my personal experience and some friends as well that there are some doctors who treated private insured individuals preferentially.Glad you find it great, thanks for your insight.

@The prince of Centraxis

Thanks for looking into the different aspects of it. I'm so sorry that my entry about health insurance here is quite incomplete. This info is primarily for those expatriate who needs to know about the health insurance here in Germany that has an income. Since state insurance is commensurate to the income then this is quite fair I think. And for those individual whose income is below at certain level or no income at all then they would surely be exempted from these mandatory payments, yet can avail the medical assistance from the government.

More so, my personal opinion for not making it free is,I think sustainability. You're certainly right a government should function for the real benefit of its people,but for someone like me who comes from a country whose assistance /benefit from the government is so little, I'm very much pleased already for what the German Government has to offer for its people. Thanks for sharing important points on Health insurance. I'll surely be visiting your site, it must be interesting.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a dream! My insurance with blue cross is terrible! We pay a fortune!

Anonymous said...

Pretty nice place you've got here. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.