Insights From Health Care in Germany

Abstract

German Statutory Health Insurance (national health insurance) has remained relatively intact over the past century, even in the face of governmental change and recent reforms. The overall story of German national health insurance is one of political compromise and successful implementation of communitarian values. Several key lessons from the German experience can be applied to the American health care system.

International models of health systems financing

“…In 2004 there were 292 sickness funds as payers for health care are legally divided into seven groups [19] . This was less than the 372 funds in 2002 as reported by [20] which indicates some consolidation of some of the funds. While company based and guild funds decreased, general regional and farmers fund increased.…”

Assessment of the Turkish health care system reforms: A stakeholder analysis

“…International evidence does exist to document that it is possible to successfully restructure MoHs for their true stewardship role. For example, the main roles of the federal government and the MoH in Germany are to supervise, facilitate, and monitor the health care system [25]. They supervise and monitor the health system to ensure that provision of care is universal, timely, and done in an equitable way.…”

Solidarity in practices of provision: distributing access to genetic technologies in health care in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

“…Within the GKV, decision-making about coverage of particular medical procedures is allocated to committees consisting of representatives of medical professionals and sickness funds. These committees have no direct involvement from either federal or regional government, other than setting the boundaries for the committees' work (Schmid 2002, Altenstetter 2003. Similarly, there has long been no national policy for genetics in medicine (until the introduction of legislation for genetic diagnostics in 2009).…”