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A comment on After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea. Parent comment

Re:After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea by ams6110 on Sunday January 28, 2018 @05:46PM (#16254059)
< In Germany the health care system is based on 'Beiträge', i.e. membership contributions to a health insurance.

Is it mandatory? If so, it's a tax in my book.

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Re:After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea by lispm on Sunday January 28, 2018 @06:13PM (#16254177)
Tax-based (example: NHS of United Kingdom)

Public -> pays to general government budget -> government pays to health care services

vs.

Social Healthcare Insurance (example: Germany)

Employer + Employee + self-employed + Students + Pensioner -> pay to Private/Public Sickness funds/Insurers -> Sickness funds/Insurers pays to health care services

See:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/how-health-care-is...

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Re:After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea by kuschku on Monday January 29, 2018 @02:03AM (#16255837)
No. You can leave the public insurance system at any time, and get a private insurance.

But if you have ever done so, you can never return into the public system.

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Re:After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea by germanier on Monday January 29, 2018 @02:40AM (#16255998)
You cannot leave at "any time". To qualify, you need to have an income of over 59k € or be a freelancer. For most others (which is most of the population) private insurance is not possible.

You can however purchase additional insurance on top of the public one.

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Re:After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea by kuschku on Monday January 29, 2018 @03:23AM (#16256155)
Well, this is HN, a forum for mostly software engineers, so an income of over 59k€ should be expected.

You are right, though, if one considers the average citizen.

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