There are a lot of misinformed people on both aisles.
I lived in Germany for fifteen years, so I know the system. They’ve peaked out at a point on cost....where the consumer will go ballistic if they stretch it again. So they invented a new fee system, for monthly payments...totally separate from the normal cost. Every year...that fee goes up another $5-$8 a month.
Anger amongst German doctors and nurses? Well, yes. They are very hostile over the few pay raises they get. So they tend to leave, for Canada, the US, and Australia...or private clinics throughout Europe.
Refurbishing German hospitals? Well...it’s a on a slow pace because there just isn’t cash from the profits to do that. So you walk into one entrance and you feel like you are in 1950s Germany, then exit one hallway to feel like 1967, and then finally hit one hallway that feels like 1997.
Treatment? No one complains greatly about the treatment in German clinics or hospitals, although everyone seems to notice more third-world doctors and nurses operating in the system. Germans don’t like that. But if you want to keep the German professionals...you’d have to pay more.
As for the American system? A heck of alot of Americans have learned that you might make it five years without ever going to the doctor, so why bother paying $2k out of your pocket for a marginal health insurance policy via your employer? So they turn down the chance to have at least a marginal policy.
Then you have those fantastic doctors who prescribe tons of pain-killers....which you get addicted to....and eventually require a second and third doctor to help keep your legal but illegal habit going.
Toss in the folks who believe an emergency room is a routine place to show up for a problem that ought to wait until you see a regular doctor...then they get all shocked that the emergency room visit was $500.
Sports injuries over a weekend? Probably five times as many in a US hospital as a German hospital.
Weekend drug binges and visits to the local American emergency room? Probably five times what you’d have in Trier or Heldelberg. Who pays for the drug visitors? Well...the American who has no health insurance just laughs when the bill comes to the house because he’s not paying for it....so it gets tossed back onto the folks who routinely visit and make the cost appear on their bills instead.
If you ask me....all of the systems are screwed up. And in ten years...it won’t matter if you are German or American...you won’t have the same care that you had in 1995. We all will be getting less care, and asking why. The answer will not be a satisfactory one.
I agree that the hospitals & doctors offices are a bit outdated...But I’ve never felt that we lacked for treatment...and I love that they don’t push antibiotics, and they’re very open to homeopathic or natural alternatives. I had so many bad experiences with pediatrician offices in Houston...Hard to actually get a “real person” on the phone...long waiting times...endless antibiotic prescriptions. We’ve experienced the opposite here. I have to admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
If you ask me....all of the systems are screwed up. And in ten years...it won’t matter if you are German or American...you won’t have the same care that you had in 1995. We all will be getting less care, and asking why. The answer will not be a satisfactory one.I'm afraid you are right.