Please send any private personal replies to Harmut, not to me. Ed
_____ From: Hartmut Beil [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 4:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Socialized medicine Ed. I think I can not post to Flyin. Here is what I wrote to Eliciam yesterday "In Germany Government is controlling your health care. To my surprise, THAT seems to work. Although due to the financial problems, getting the right kind of care is more problematic, but it generally works. I believe that something that effects the majority of the population will be regulated by the people. It is hard for a bureaucracy to keep up inefficiency when it affects the majority of the people. It is like this. Germans like to drink beer a lot and also like to speed with their cars a lot. No politician seriously considers taxes on beer or a speed limit on Freeways. Both would be sense making and right, but we, the people decide otherwise. Democracy works only for the group that is the majority. In case of health care, this is actually working." I might add, that in Germany even if you are out of income, broke, what have it, you are having health care - for free. All you have to do is to tell the labor department that you are jobless and then tell the welfare department that you are broke. From that day on you are covered - on state costs. You even get welfare , enough to cover rent for an appropriate apartment and food for your family. The major concern for Germans moving to the States is that they are without automatic health care coverage. Unless you are in a job, and even then, they don't trust the American system. When I was working in California during the dot.com boom, health care seemed affordable, even a coverage for the whole family. But the co pay for every visit kinda sucked. My wife went almost ones a week to the doc with the kids. Pricey. In Germany such thing as co pay does not exist. Although they started to collect 10 € every quarter when you visit a doc. Makes 40 Euros a year extra when you visit the doc - maybe it is even only twice a year. I forgot. However, having the government founded health care system here does not mean, I can't choose my insurance company. I can visit any doctor I want, I have some restrictions of the free service provided at the dentist, but I can pay for the better service if I want to. I can even opt out and choose a private insurance carrier. The difference here is that the amount of pay for the insurance is normally coupled to my income. Less than 10 percent are being collected for Health insurance from my paycheck right now. I am sure there is a system in it that adjusts for higher income, but if you let's say have a high income, you can opt out and get a private insurance for a negotiated price. So there is some freedom. Anybody on a payroll is rather not doing that and pays whatever his calculated part is. It is automatically subtracted from your pay check . The system is just that - everybody pays for health insurance. This is a requirement. You are free to pick your insurance provider and they are collecting the amount that the government is calculating - a percentage of your income. More expensive? Only for those that can afford it. I am currently paying more for Social security than for health insurance. I am not sure what system OBAMA has in mind, but if it is like the German system, you have nothing to loose, you can only win. At least compared to the current situation. It is a bit mixed up - as my thoughts were flying. Feel free to edit it. All the best, Hartmut _____ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Socialized medicine Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:33:37 -0500 Hartmut, Would you please be sure to answer to the flyin forum? Thanks, Ed _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ralph Finch Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 12:42 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ercoupe-flyin] RE: [ercoupe-tech] Model C or D Hartmut doesn’t have to imagine, he lives in a country with government organized health care. Hartmut, can you tell us how it is? And you lived in the USA for a few years, how do you compare it to here? It’s a sincere question. Actually the USA has socialized police, fire, schools roads, water systems, sewages systems….the list goes on and on. And those are all government employees! The “socialized” medicine the neo-conservatives try to scare us with is not on the same order at all: it’s simply letting the government act as an insurer along with all the for-profit, high-salary, private insurance companies. Why do the neo-cons want to deny freedom of choice? Ralph Finch From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of heavensounds Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:33 PM To: Techlist Ercoupe Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Model C or D Harmut You are correct. That's yet one more example of the imbecility of government bureaucracies. Illogical regulations that make no sense whatsoever. Imagine when government starts controlling health care ! Eliacim _____ Windows Live™ Hotmail®: Search, add, and share the web’s latest sports videos. Check it out. <http://www.windowslive.com/Online/Hotmail/Campaign/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_QA_HM_sports_videos_072009&cat=sports>
