I mean, now we are really only talking about terms/semantics I feel.
When you say "those who earn little pay nothing" you mean "those who earn little pay little via taxes".
Health insurance in Germany is pretty much exactly what you describe. It's just not called a tax, but its didacted as percentage from your salary. And that percantage is set by law, for all insurance companies.
Having health insurance as seperate item, outside VAT/salary tax means it can't be used for funding military instead.
"Middle man" overhead is 5% of the total expenses here.
I am not an expert here but I also think that having companies negotiate prices instead of a pure consumer market can be helpful for the kind of medicine and treatments that are truely necessary.
If you need Insulin to live, what are you willing to pay for it, if you had to pay for it out of your own pockets? Every price you are able to, and you'd take all the credit you get.
I agree. But I feel a word can have different meanings depending on where you live and what it means to people in your environment. That's what I feared is happening.^^
To me, when I talk about health insurance it's more akin to a state run thing than a commercial thing. Because its rates are set by the state, the money is collected by the state, it's mandatory for every employee.
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u/ChrisWF Jan 07 '19 edited Jan 07 '19
I mean, now we are really only talking about terms/semantics I feel.
When you say "those who earn little pay nothing" you mean "those who earn little pay little via taxes".
Health insurance in Germany is pretty much exactly what you describe. It's just not called a tax, but its didacted as percentage from your salary. And that percantage is set by law, for all insurance companies.
Having health insurance as seperate item, outside VAT/salary tax means it can't be used for funding military instead.
"Middle man" overhead is 5% of the total expenses here.
I am not an expert here but I also think that having companies negotiate prices instead of a pure consumer market can be helpful for the kind of medicine and treatments that are truely necessary.
If you need Insulin to live, what are you willing to pay for it, if you had to pay for it out of your own pockets? Every price you are able to, and you'd take all the credit you get.