Minn. Health Care experts to examine German Health Care System

[WillieW]

http://wcco.com/health/health.experts.Germany.2.1195696.html

Minn. Health Experts To Examine German Health CareST. PAUL (AP) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1
Health experts from Minnesota will head to Germany this week to see what its medical system and health care plans are like.

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Minnesota health experts head to Germany this week to examine a medical system where everyone has insurance and private health plans operate under government supervision.

The 13-member delegation includes state Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman, legislators and officials from the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, Planned Parenthood and AARP.

The group will meet with German health care regulators and insurers.

They will also visit a for-profit hospital.

The trip runs Tuesday through Sunday. It's organized by the University of Minnesota's Center for German and European Studies.



Hope that they learn something.

[SoCalDem]

1. This is what Team-Obama should have been doing since last December

They should have held televised symposiums where health officials from:

Canada
Japan
Germany
France
UK
Iceland
Denmark
Sweden
and all the rest

where they explained in detail just how their systems actually work..along with real-life families who were willing to lay out in US dollar format, just what it cost them personally, and how it fit into their family budget.

Our government has a vested interest in keeping up uninformed.:(

[kenny blankenship]

2. Yet another article on Germany that fails to notice or use the concept of NON-PROFIT insurance

Wow. Americans must not know this word "NON-PROFIT", in either uppercase letters or lowercase. I see the word for-profit occurs in the article. I see the word private occurs in the article. But I wonder why the word NON-PROFIT is absent from an article about examining a system in which 90% of the population are enrolled in NON-PROFIT sickness funds, automatically by law if their income is below 70,000 US dollars a year

[exboyfil]

3. Seems a little bit like a dog and pony show to me

The German system should be studied, but I think in a much more complete fashion than this, and it should have been done a while ago. I would like to see a wide variety of individuals studying it (yes including someone from a place like the Cato Institute). Have the final report include dissenting opinions with evidence, and have public debates on the merits/disadvantages of this system. The few Germans with which I talked about it (mostly all engineers) think highly of the system. I think that it is the closest model to something we can quickly adopt in the U.S. (we are not going to nationalize medical services like the UK). A comparable study of the Canadian system should also happen, but it would be of more limited use I think (the population is just too small and we see many leakage effects from the U.S. presence next to Canada).

Some interesting things about Germany and illegal immigration and health care are contained in the following article.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4056861,00.html


Spotlight Berlin: Illegal Immigrants and the Health Care Dilemma

According to German asylum laws, these people are entitled to medical treatment in cases of emergency. The problem is that if they reveal their identity they will be treated -- but might end up being deported as a result.

In Germany, doctors, hospitals, social workers, teachers and other employees at public institutions -- often called upon to help illegal immigrants -- are among those who can be subject to legal action if they fail to report illegal immigrants to authorities. This is not the case in many other European countries.

[gopiscrap]

4. I was a product of that Health Care system.

I was born in 1957 and three weeks after my birth I contacted a case of encephalitis. Very dangerous and serious for a new born baby. Most back then either die, or are severly eccected for the rest of their lives. I was in the hospital for six months, two of them in intensive care. My parents total bill? $11.67 Fast forward 37 years..I had cancer twice. The first time with insurance and yes, it was tough getting through all the bills but we made it. Because of a job loss and a pre-existing condition, the second time I was uninsured and wracked up $187,000.00 in bills..we lost everything we had and are still recovering!!! GO GERMANY-SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!!!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. So, they finally responded to the Kaiser's invitation?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6340331