Posted on 05/12/2012 2:21:57 PM PDT by Olog-hai
As the United States Supreme Court considers whether requiring people to have health insurance is unconstitutional, Germans are bewildered as to why so many Americans appear to be against universal coverage.
They also question the continued portrayal of US President Barack Obama and his health reform backers as socialists and communists, noting that healthcare was introduced in Germany in the 19th century by Otto von Bismarck, who was definitely not a leftist, and is supported by conservative and pro-business politicians today.
"It's a solidarity principle," says Ann Marini, a spokesperson for the National Health Insurers Association. "Not every 'S' automatically means socialism."
Marini and others say that mandated coverage is something that is simply not questioned in Germany. Furthermore, even the most pro-market politicians wouldn't dare to dismantle the country's health insurance system.
The requirement that everyone buy health insurance is based on a simple concept, healthcare experts agree. Allowing healthy people to opt out of having health insurance destroys the insurance community and leaves insurers covering only the sick.
But there are other reasons why Germans are confused about the US healthcare debate. The US comes across to not only Germans, but to many Europeans, as a religious country. God seems to be part of many US debates, especially ones surrounding the presidential campaign. In secular European politics, the Almighty is rarely if ever invoked.
"For me the US is a very religious country. It doesn't matter which religion I look atlove thy neighbor is a very, very important point in religion," health insurance spokesperson Marini says. For her, the apparent deep religiousness of many Americans doesn't jibe with their unwillingness to be part of a healthcare community.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Cheap and effective.
Whats not to like?
I really don’t care what Germans think.
Now that’s funny right there.
Does the German healthcare include abortions and birth control for free? Does it include same pay for all doctors?Does it include death counseling and rationing? Taxes,?Does it attack the Catholic faith in Germany? Did they have to pass it to see what was in it? Does it incl;ude insurance for illegal immigrants?
Does Germany have any idea WTF is in Obamacare?
Nope, Hitler was not German!
You got that right. SIL is from Germany. I think she’s amused about this country going down the tubes. From what I’ve seen, if it’s FREE, to her it’s GREAT, and she wants it and all of it she can get. - I grew up with my dad having been a WWII combat veteran shell shocked all to heck, so to say the least, having to deal with a German in the family has not been easy. (I’ve had the “mind like a steel trap” thing thrown down at me and my nose rubbed in it numerous times; plus having to walk on eggshells about the “Hitler” thing.)
EVERYTHING that the government has taken over here has been an endless tax pit and a failure, unacknowledged by the government, of course. . Medicare, the Post Office, and a bunch of other stuff too numerous to mention. The government just starts a thing, and the more it fails, the more they double down on doing what they’ve always done.
Because Germans have a history of being subservient and “just following orders”. Ours is a history of “get out of my face and leave me the f... alone!”
What, they don’t teach them that Germany declared war on the USA on 12/11/1941?
“Hitlers rise to power was an amazing time in history, a perfect storm as it were. But he was still an Austrian.”
I seem to recall Hitler became an official German citizen about the time he became Chancellor. I might be wrong, but it seems I read this in “The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich”.
Yes, Hitler was Austrian but was made a citizen of Brunswick, Germany, by a local Nazi official in 1932. This made him a citizen of Germany.
Exactly. Bismark feared a communist takeover, Ergo, old age pensions, govt. health care, etc.
Actually Hitler was an Austrian, he was born in Bavaria. By serving in a German regiment in WW1 he was allowed to petition for German citizenship.
“Advice from people who really enjoy marching in parades’’<< Ain’t it the truth? You watch those documentaries on tv and boy those Krauts sure could march! Stompin’ around like they owned the Earth. Until we got them out of the habit that is.
Exactly what I was going to tell him/her. Great quote.
I never realized that more than half of all Germans of working age are also on welfare.
So how do the Germans manage that many parasites?
Sorry, Jack. That has never "been insurance."
Welfare, maybe.
Insurance? Never.
I don't really care what Obama says.
It’s called “beggar thy neighbor”.
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