Socialized Health Care

There has been a lot of talk lately about health care, especially in the US, and whether or not the US should adopt a socialized health care system of some form. My reply is "Why the hell not?". Those who are uninsured are paying way too much for health care, especially since they normally wait until a cold has turned into the flu and that has subsequently turned into pneumonia.

Here's my disclaimer, I'M NOT A DOCTOR. I have no clue if a cold can turn into pneumonia. I think that if you leave something untreated then it has the possibility to turn into something nasty and something that is potentially deadly.

I have lived with both health care systems. I must say, that while I was on my mother's health care, I had awesome coverage. United Health Care seriously rocked my world. I could get prescriptions with just a little co-pay. I could see the doctor for just 15 bucks a visit. If I needed a surgery, done and done. No problem. Then I turned 25 and this luxury ended.

I could have gone COBRA and stayed with my mother's health insurance, however, I would also have to sell a kidney to be able to afford it. I figured that since I was still in school, I would stick to the student clinic and I would get some form of catastrophic health insurance. Now it cost me 30 bucks to see the doctor...luckily, I just had to go twice to get a certain pill refilled. The prescriptions for students were also cheaper...I could get my monthly pill for $15 a month. Not bad, considering with mom's health insurance it was something around $10-$12 a month.

The catastrophic health insurance (THANK GOD I NEVER NEEDED IT!!!) was a whole different monster. For people who solely rely on this as their health care coverage, I feel completely sorry for them. If I needed to go to the doctor, I had to pay 40% of the costs...and we all know how doctors LOVE to run all sorts of tests. Also, if I needed, say, my tonsils taken out, I would have to cover $3,000 of the charges, plus 50% of the medications that I would need afterward! Are you kidding me? Who's got an extra $3,000 hanging out just in case. The answer: those with catastrophic health insurance just for this purpose.

I would get NO preventative treatment. If I didn't have the fall back of the student health center on campus, I would have been SOL when I had this awful cough a few years ago. Seriously, those with catastrophic health insurance, or those with NO health insurance, I feel for you. It is these people that get the shitty end of the stick.

Then I moved to Germany and it is like the sky cleared, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping....and somewhere there could have been angels singing. "You mean, that once I'm married to you Markus, I am covered by your health insurance? I get to see ANY doctor I want? I can go to the dentist again?" This was wonderful. Those in the US that get health insurance through their employer or their spouse know that having health insurance is a wonderful thing.

Let me explain a bit about the German health care system (from my perspective of course). If you work, no matter part-time or full-time, you receive health coverage. It is compulsory. You have to take part. You pay a certain percentage of your wages (around 8%) towards your coverage, and your employer pays the same. So, if you don't make too much money, no worries, you pay less for health insurance. If you make piles of money, then you pay more. The rich pay a bit more to cover the costs for the poor who can't pay as much into the system. The Germans call this "solidarity". I would tend to call it equality.

However, if you make piles of money, you have a choice. You can choose to stay on with the public health insurance OR you can choose to switch over to a public health insurance.

Markus explained this to me, but it is super complicated, so I'm just going to dumb it down a bit. If he were to choose to go with a private health insurance, he would have to pay a greater percentage out of his paycheck. Even worse, I would not be covered. He'd have to pay extra for me. The positive aspects of a private health insurance is that you get to the front of the line when you get to the doctors, and you'd get a single room at the hospital. Those are just two "advantages" of private health insurance.

Oh, and just to make this really clear, THIS IS NOT A HEALTH INSURANCE RUN BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT! They merely keep a really, really close eye on it and be sure that the costs don't get too out of hand...ok, they basically regulate the insurance companies closely, which is by no means a bad thing.

So, what do I get out of this whole "socialized health care"? I get good health AND DENTAL care that is what I get! Ok, I might have bitched a bit about the hospital rooms, but I have the option of staying in there for about a week and the insurance WILL PAY for it! The hospital won't try to push me out of there the day after having a baby...unless you're like a friend of mine who 4 hours after giving birth to her adorable baby girl, went home. She wanted to do that. But here's the real kicker. Her insurance paid for a midwife to come by EVERY DAY for about 10 days to check in on her and the baby. A house call! A freaking house call! I don't know if you can still get one of those in the US (and no, an ambulance coming is not a house call).

Ok, but back to MY experiences. Every quarter, I must pay a 10 Euro (about $14) ONCE. Once every 3 months!!! This enables me to go to my primary care physician if I get sick, and to my OBGYN for female stuff. I don't have to pay 10 Euro for each visit, even if it is to a different doctor. Nope, just once, to one doctor (normally your primary care physician) and then you get a piece of paper saying that you've already paid your co-pay for the quarter.

Also, on the weekend, if you get sick and need to go to the doctor, you have to pay another co-pay of 10 Euro, but it is just ONCE for the entire YEAR (at least I believe it is the year...if not, it is then once a quarter as well, which ain't too shabby either!).

Oh, and another GREAT aspect about this "socialized health care" is that I get to see the dentist (which is a separate co-pay, but it is still only 10 Euro a quarter). Seriously? A dentist? And if I need a filling, I get it. If I need some other work done, then I can get it. A crown, no prob! I do have to pay a bit extra for these services, but it not near what I paid when I had to get 3 cavities filled in the US ending up costing about $1,200!!! Ok, I didn't have insurance then, but $1,200 for 3 freaking cavaties??? Give me a break!

So now you may be wondering how long the wait is to get an appointment at a doctor's office, and subsequently, how long the wait is once I'm there. The answer, roughly the same as in the US, if not faster. When my pregnancy test turned up positive, it was a Friday. I called my doctor immediately and I got in the following Tuesday. Not bad. I remember in the US, even with my mom's awesome insurance, I would have to wait a month or so for some appointments. Once I got there, sure, we had to wait. It was probably 15 minutes or so. Not too long. Sometimes the wait has been longer, but there were more people waiting then.

One thing that I must add, German doctors do not jump at every chance they get to prescribe you some new fancy drug. They try to go the less invasive route. So, if you've got a cough, you most likely won't get the fun cough syrup laced with codine...they'll tell you to drink tea (which by the way, works just as well and you don't get the trippy side effects). However, if you have such a horrid sinus infection, they will prescribe you antibiotics. I like that they err on the side of caution with prescription meds...have you seen the side-effects some of them have??? They're worse that what they claim to be helping. Your restless-leg-syndrome meds won't help you much if they kill you now will they? And is "restless-leg-syndrome" really somthing that you should be prescribed meds for? Is it really that bad?

So, all in all, I am happy so far with the German health care system. You can say what you want about how evil "socialized" health care is and that it is just another way for the government to spy on you or whatever. But wait until you actually live with it. It is not bad at all! I think that the main fear from lots of people in the us comes from the fear of the unknown. However, if the US uses the UK as guide for socialized health care, I would be against it too! Hopefully the US can adopt some form of the German health care system.

What are your thoughts?

The Hospital in Weiden

A week or so ago, Markus and I went and took a tour of the maternity ward at the hospital in Weiden. It was nice, but I do have just a few reservations, but I think I can get over them quickly.

To start off with, we went straight into the birthing areas. They have two birthing rooms, which have different things to either help you get fully dilated, or get more comfy while you're pushing...Ok, too much info for the guys out there...sorry. All in all, I really liked the rooms. They have a separate room with a tub that you can use to just help relax you through the contractions, or you can give birth in it. Pretty cool.

Another nice aspect is that, if need be (cross your fingers that I don't need it), the c-section room is right next to the birthing rooms, so in an emergency, little girl will be out in about 3-7 minutes. Not bad.

What is also nice is that new mothers can stay for 3 or 4 days (it might even be longer). It isn't like in the US where they try to get you out ASAP. Also after a c-section, you stay there for 7-10 days...a week is the minimum though.

We were then taken to the baby room. You can, of course, keep your baby in your room, or if you need to sleep, you can give your baby to the nice ladies and they'll bring her in when she needs to be fed.

Now on to the part that I didn't really like. The patient rooms. There are 6 or 7 patient rooms with 2 beds and then 1 or 2 family rooms. The family room is what I would really like to get. There is room for Markus to spend the night too, and a nice big couch...it costs a bit more each night, 45 Euro, but I think it would be well worth it! These rooms I liked. The other patient rooms...not so much. They are pretty small, and have two beds in them. That is fine. My problem is that there aren't any curtains between the beds.

My mother-in-law, bless her heart, is trying to convince me that this is such a wonderful thing since you can talk with the other ladies and that, in and of itself, is worth having the double room. I keep telling her that is great for her, but not for me. And since little girl is coming in September (9 months after Christmas, I know) there are loads of other pregnant ladies in Weiden who are going to be giving birth at around the same time. So, if there are lots of women, then instead of just having 2 beds in the room, there could be 3. Great, making the small room even smaller. And then I heard that they don't really open the windows, so it can get super stuffy in there...and then with 3 ladies and 3 babies...I think that I'm just freaking myself out more than how it really will be. Time will tell....

However, I must say, after chatting with a few friends who have given birth in the UK/Ireland, I'm pretty happy about the situation here in Germany. One of my friends was in a room with 9 other women...good lord. And then the stories from mom when she gave birth in the US to Matt and I...hmmm...thinking about it, it won't be so bad. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed though that I get one of those family rooms...

This has got to be the funniest thing...

If you can read German, then this is absolutely HILARIOUS!!! If not, you can look at the pictures and follow along that way.

YOU MUST READ/LOOK AT THIS...

Enjoy...

WTF?

So, here in Germany there is A LOT of English used within the German language itself. One thing that REALLY gets me, is when they take an English word and bastardize its meaning. For example, a couple years ago, Emily and I were here and saw a sign for an "Electronics Gang Bang". Now, while this is a big meeting of the people who like the musical genre of Electronics, the word "Gang Bang" is what really gets me. From what I understand, the word gang bang is when a female wants to be initiated into a gang. Basically all of the men of the gang line up to rape this woman. Not a very good word. But here in Germany, it is used to mean group sex, as well as in the sense above, a meeting. I find this absolutely awful.

Yet another example came today when I was reading a magazine about the happenings around Weiden. A DJ decided to take the name "DJ Slutshaker". Seriously, WTF??? I am pretty sure that he took this name just because he thought it "cool" (another English word used often). But seriously, Slutshaker? When I hear this as the name of a DJ, I automatically think of a strip club.

However, this also brings up a much bigger debate, the "Englishifying of the German Language". There have been a few reports I've seen on TV about this, and they are really interesting. There is a huge surge, espeically in the younger generations, of using more and more English words in their everyday language.

What is REALLY annoying to me is when people beign to blame the Americans and the English for this. Oh no sir, in my opinion it is not the English speaker's fault. It is that of the Germans. They want to sound cool, and right now the English language is "total in", so they bring over words they hear, no matter the meaning and give them new meaning. This is not to say that the Germans bastardize every English word brought over into their language. No, not at all. They use the word "sale" correctly. In my opinion if many Germans are against this, then they should try creating a law limitizing the influence of the English language. In France, they have this law where most of the songs on the radio are French. They limit the ammount of foreign language songs played on the radio. Here, just about every song is sung in English.

However, I really just wanted to talk about DJ Slutshaker and his awful name.

UPDATE: Ok, so since the original DJ Slutshaker contacted me, he isn't an awful guy. Just a DJ with a catchy name...Maybe I'll become a DJ (yea right!) in the US and call myself DJ Schlampenschlepper...I think that would be funny! But first, I would definitely have to work on my DJing skillz which are basically non-existent...so I'll just leave that to the pros, such as DJ Slutshaker. ;)