Hospital Bill, German style

[DFW]

17. I'm a legal resident here, so you heard wrong

It costs more or less the same everywhere in Northern Europe. What I had costs thousands no matter where you have it done. How it is financed is what makes the difference. If you are a GERMAN citizen (or legal resident) and either working, destitute or over 65, THEN you are insured by law. If you fall through the cracks, like my wife, who is German, did from age 60 to 65, you either get their version of COBRA or hope to the Great Pumpkin that you don't get sick. At 65, her German version of Medicare kicked in, and she was covered again. By the way, at age 64, she did get a deadly (as in no one survives) for of cancer, and the insurance I was paying for covered it. She was that one in ten thousand that DID survive it. The treatment was brutal and she was in the hospital for a month, but that was ten years ago, so it was worth it.

No one here builds hospitals for free. Medical staff does not work on a volunteer basis. Manufacturers of medicine do not donate their products out of charity. It is FINANCED differently. It is PAID FOR differently. But it does cost a lot, and it does get paid for--just not always by the people being treated. As I am not a German citizen, and I work for an American employer. I am expected to pay full German taxes (AND American taxes, with minimal deductions), to the tune of about 73% total income tax, and get NOTHING for it in Germany. No health insurance, no pension, no NOTHING except just gimme yer money! Heil Honecker!

Different countries have different rules pertaining to foreigners needing care who have neither citizenship nor residence nor a job with an EU employer. Some are very "generous," but force their own taxpayers to foot the bill. Those people who got treatment while visiting Denmark or Finland and paid under $100 did so on the backs of Danish or Finnish taxpayers. It was NOT free. Germany does not force its own taxpayers to pay for the health care of those who are passing through and need treatment. They expect those people to pay up, and submit the bills to their own insurance in their own countries. They do not feel that visitors have the right to freeload on the back of German taxpayers. I can't say that I blame them, but I pay six figures in taxes to the German government per year and get NOTHING in return. I don't find that fair, either.