COMPARISON

US VS. THEM



  The health care system in America is currently described as “patchwork” because it consists of a variety of insurance types: **Health Care system in the USA:**
 * Individual health coverage
 * Government funded health care (Medicaid, Medicare, VA, SCHIP)
 * Patients are seen as consumers
 * Physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies decide how much we must pay for medical care
 * Encourages physicians to order redundant and useless tests
 * Health care becomes an economic commodity so that not everyone has access
 * Susceptible to economic fluctuations
 * Individual health coverage
 * Government funded health care (Medicaid, Medicare, VA, SCHIP)
 * Patients are seen as consumers
 * Physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies decide how much we must pay for medical care
 * Encourages physicians to order redundant and useless tests
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">Health care becomes an economic commodity so that not everyone has access
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">Susceptible to economic fluctuations

<span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">Medical bills prompt more than 60% of all U.S. bankruptcies according to CNN. Bankruptcies attributed to medical bills increased by nearly 50% from 2001 to 2007. 75% of all people who went bankrupt because of medical bills had health insurance. Private health insurers are in the business of making money and they do, lots of it. One of the ways they continue to make such large profits when the rest of the country is suffering an economic crisis, is by denying people medical care through the use of loopholes. In Texas, a woman with breast cancer needed to have both breasts removed to save her life and her insurance company refused to pay the cost of her surgery due to her pre-existing condition of acne. This is just only one example among thousands that have bankrupted Americans who had private health care insurance.Another way the private health insurance companies keep making record profits is by charging Americans more. Insurance premiums have risen at more than twice that of inflation.

<span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;"> The Federal Republic of Germany lies in the middle of Europe. Reunification in 1990 transformed Germany into the largest country in Europe, with 16 states (//Länder//) that cover an area of 356,970 square kilometers (137,827 square miles). This densely populated country has more than 83 million people. Despite the heavy financial strain imposed by reunification, Germany has continued to invest 10.5% of GDP on healthcare (which compares with 13.7% in the [|USA], 9.5% in [|Canada], and 7.0% in England).
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 200%; color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">The health care system in Germany: **

<span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">Until they reach the retirement age of 65, people must, by law, pay into health insurance plans (and, since 1994, an additional long-term care plan). The health insurance plans are either state-regulated or private. After retirement, contribution payments for the state-regulated plans stop (although private patients continue payments), but coverage is continued until death.

<span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">the health care system in Germany is good because you dont pay alot
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">your not alone in this
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">when you turn 65 you start paying health insurance plans
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: left;">you pay what you could afford

[[WORK-CITED]]