Today, Germany leads the world in the quality of medical services. The exceptionally high level of German medicine is also due to the fact that the healthcare system in Germany is financed by the state, moreover, all conditions are created here for continuous development of medical science and technology.
Medicine in Germany is renowned for precise diagnostics, modern methods of treatment, the latest expensive equipment and technology, last generation effective medications, and well-equipped rehabilitation centers.
Medicine in Germany costs the budget over 300 billion euros a year.
Treatment in Germany implies high quality of medical and service provision, warmth and kindness of the staff.
Germany has given the world a lot of famous doctors and scientists, including Robert Koch, Heinrich Kvinck, Rudolf Ludwig Karl.
Germany has 16 Nobel Prize winners in medicine or physiology (3rd place in the world, after the United States and England).
Health care in Germany is under the authority of the Federal Land. Medicine in Germany is insured. All citizens of Germany are required to have health insurance. The majority of the population is covered by the state program of compulsory health insurance (about 87%), the rest of the citizens have private health insurance, according to the current laws entrepreneurs, civil servants and individuals with income of about 50,000 euros and more per year and others are entitled to it.
Each Federal Land can pass its own laws governing health care financing, so the health care financing system is very heterogeneous and quite complex. Insurance premiums under the various health insurance schemes are covered by the employer and the worker in equal proportions (50/50). For the insured, these contributions amount to approximately 14% of wages.
Medical care in Germany has its disadvantages:
- Insurance premiums increase every year, due to the aging of the nation, and the increase in the part of the population that does not contribute to insurance funds, and in rare cases has no insurance at all.
- All medicine in Germany is based on the principle of solidarity and is regulated by the Book of Social Laws, i.e., the government is not involved in the organization of medical care. This is handled by medical foundations or prevention and treatment institutions.
- New technology and medicines are quite expensive.
- Staying in a hospital in Germany for more than 14 days is usually not paid for by the insurance company.
- Patients have to pay out of pocket for preventive consultations with a general practitioner.
- Patients who have switched to private insurance are not entitled to return to public insurance.
- Private insurance companies refuse to pay for seriously ill people.
- Patients are not reimbursed for certain medications.
- The medical funds have the right to set the cost of insurance themselves.
- Despite some lapses, German medicine is still recognized as one of the best in the world. At present, people from all over the world, including the USA and England, come for treatment to Germany. Many patients successfully combine treatment and recreation in Germany.
Germany’s medicine: advantages
- The patient has an electronic card, in which his data, medical history and checkups are displayed. This innovation allows you to be examined at any hospital in Germany without the creation of a new hospital card at each new hospital.
- The patient has the right to choose the hospital where he or she wants to be treated, which applies only to hospitals in Germany that are part of the public health system.
- Every resident has the right to receive supplementary insurance from a private insurance organization.
- A patient with Supplementary Insurance from the National Insurance Fund can receive free outpatient treatment.
- Every patient has the right to receive treatment at a hospital that requires it, regardless of where the referring physician works.
- Children (up to 18 years old) and the elderly are entitled to free treatment.
- Another major plus is the quality of care in German hospitals, which, like German medicine, are leaders in the world in terms of service. Every year, medicine in Germany undergoes cosmetic reforms, resulting in an increase in the quality of care year by year, as well as in the already high professionalism of doctors.
Since 2009, a law on continuous training of medical personnel has been passed. The government is so interested in creating a healthy nation that it invests hundreds of millions of euros each year to re-equip hospitals.