• TalesFromTheKitchen@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Well, here in Germany you’re paying (you have to) around 15% of your gross income for health insurance plus 3.4% for intensive care insurance. Your employer pays for half of those. Insurances are expensive but if you need them it’s cheaper than paying for treatment yourself. What I pearsonally find worse is the public tv and radio fee you have to pay each month (18 euros, same as netflix premium) to finance some dickwad director earning 200k+ even if you don’t watch or even have a tv/radio. Also it doesn’t matter how much you earn, the fee is the same.

    • workerONE@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So workers pay 7.3% and employers pay 7.3%? It covers all of your health care costs? U.S. insurance varies in cost but we have medical bills on top of insurance costs.

      • nyoooom@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        But what does your insurance pay for if not the medical bills? It’s supposed to be its entire purpose, pay the medical bills.

        • TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Insurance companies put enormous amounts of resources, time, and manpower into avoiding paying the bills. They’ll find some excuse buried in their 400 page packet, or they’ll deem something not a “medical necessity “ until it’s too late to do anything about it.

        • workerONE@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There’s different tiers, but in the case of a doctor visit and prescriptions for medication, you typically have a copay amount which insurance does not cover. If you have a serious illness and require treatment in the hospital you would be required to pay 30%-40% of the total bill. Also some insurance requires that you pay a certain amount per year before it will take effect, then the insurance pays the rest for the year. There’s tons of different plans and scenarios, insurance here is a rip off.

        • smackmyballsoff@lemmynsfw.com
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          1 year ago

          Exactly! It’s ridiculous. My father is disabled and on a fixed income. He has insurance but his treatment still costs him thousands a year, even though he only receives a few thousand to live on.

      • TalesFromTheKitchen@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yep, all covered except for some extra stuff like getting your teeth deep-cleaned by your dentist or some premium dental prosthetics, but they usually subsidize it. Edit: also having most people enrolled in the public insurance (wealthier people have private insurance) makes this system possible, at least for now.

    • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      The public broadcasting fees are important to prevent private monopolies. To add some context to non germans: The most people here who cry about the fee are far right wingers because the public channels are the only ones really doing work to uncover things like Nazis in the police.

      And if you are without a job you dont have to pay it.