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Germany has more social programs than the US has ever thought of...and higher taxes.


As of mid-1995, the policy and institutional features that characterized the development of German social policy over the last century continued to provide the overall umbrella of social policy in Germany. This has meant the continuation of separate programs for different groups in the labor force; decentralized and mostly nongovernment, self-administering bodies and private grassroots voluntary social welfare agencies; an emphasis on earnings-related individualized cash benefits determined by past contributions rather than by need; and a continued reliance on social insurance programs. For most people living in Germany, these programs have worked well and have provided a continuous expansion of coverage and improved benefits.
During the last forty years, the system favored the improvement of benefits for those with a continuous work record. For the most part, these were workers who had never left the workforce. They received earnings-related insurance benefits while other population groups tended to receive means-tested benefits or a combination of the two. Their lower wages on average mean smaller benefits because of smaller contributions into insurance programs.
Germany's health care system provides its residents with nearly universal access to comprehensive high-quality medical care and a choice of physicians. Over 90 percent of the population receives health care through the country's statutory health care insurance program. Membership in this program is compulsory for all those earning less than a periodically revised income ceiling. Nearly all of the remainder of the population receives health care via private for-profit insurance companies. Everyone uses the same health care facilities.

Although the federal government has an important role in specifying national health care policies and although the Länder control the hospital sector, the country's health care system is not government run. Instead, it is administered by national and regional self-governing associations of payers and providers. These associations play key roles in specifying the details of national health policy and negotiate with one another about financing and providing health care. In addition, instead of being paid for by taxes, the system is financed mostly by health care insurance premiums, both compulsory and voluntary.For residents of the former GDR, the era of free care ended in 1991. The political decision to adopt the FRG's health care system required the reorganization of nearly all components of health care in the new Länder . As of mid-1995, the reorganization of the health care system in the former GDR still was far from completion.

There is a huge difference between theirs and ours.

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. Edgar Allan Poe