From facts. German healthcare system is 100% privatised and it works very well due to minimal market regulations, but extensive safety regulation. The US healthcare system is bound to insane licensing processes and fees, yet close to zero safety regulations.
For example, the US only has a few medical air transport companies, because getting a license is very very expensive. Only big corps can afford it and they have a cartel like grip on the market as there’s no competition. At the same time the US doesn’t regulate their performance and pricing. So you end up with an artificial cartel monopoly which sets sky high prices for their services.
Similar licensing in Germany is much cheaper and any decent air company can afford it, so there’s a lot of healthy competition. But they also have price caps, so services are actually affordable.
So, in short the difference is that Germany has a free market with pro-consumer regulations and the US has cartel monopoly without any pro-consumer regulations at all. And this approach goes through the whole healthcare system.
The free market always sorts itself out, especially with a small nudge from the state, that’s why US corporations are lobbying hard to prevent all and any competition to themselves. And that’s why corporate lobbying is called corruption elsewhere and is illegal.
This differentiation between weird license fees and safety regulations makes sense.
But the privatised hospitals etc is extremely problematic, as they underpay their stuff regularily, causing extreme situations.
I guess that a free market has advantages over slow and established monopoles. But the companies will still exploit as much as possible, if not every single thing is regulated.
Example environment and labor laws. If you have exact laws for every known process, they will try to find loopholes to be cheaper, because there is only profit, no moral.
Sorry for late reply, but let’s take a look at some real world examples.
Today we have three health care models in developed nations: a cartel system founded, funded and protected by the US government; public health care in the UK and private free market health care with consumer protections in Germany.
I believe that we all can agree that cartel system is a big fucking no for every sane person. So we can focus on health care workers in the UK and Germany.
If you check British news for the last decade, you will see that doctors, nurses and support staff are on strikes all over UK pretty much every day. At least every week during “good” times. At the same time doctors, nurses and support staff in Germany usually strike once a year, maybe twice post pandemic. Why is that?
The issue is that if you work for NHS in the UK and the government refuses to give you a pay rise and forces you to work unpaid overtime hours you, as an NHS worker you only have one option - strike. If you work in a free market environment in the Germany, then you have at least one more alternative - pack your shit, put a resignation letter on the desk of your boss and go work for a different health care provider. Nationalised system robs workers of their right to participate in a free market and seek better opportunities.
From facts. German healthcare system is 100% privatised and it works very well due to minimal market regulations, but extensive safety regulation. The US healthcare system is bound to insane licensing processes and fees, yet close to zero safety regulations.
For example, the US only has a few medical air transport companies, because getting a license is very very expensive. Only big corps can afford it and they have a cartel like grip on the market as there’s no competition. At the same time the US doesn’t regulate their performance and pricing. So you end up with an artificial cartel monopoly which sets sky high prices for their services.
Similar licensing in Germany is much cheaper and any decent air company can afford it, so there’s a lot of healthy competition. But they also have price caps, so services are actually affordable.
So, in short the difference is that Germany has a free market with pro-consumer regulations and the US has cartel monopoly without any pro-consumer regulations at all. And this approach goes through the whole healthcare system.
The free market always sorts itself out, especially with a small nudge from the state, that’s why US corporations are lobbying hard to prevent all and any competition to themselves. And that’s why corporate lobbying is called corruption elsewhere and is illegal.
This differentiation between weird license fees and safety regulations makes sense.
But the privatised hospitals etc is extremely problematic, as they underpay their stuff regularily, causing extreme situations.
I guess that a free market has advantages over slow and established monopoles. But the companies will still exploit as much as possible, if not every single thing is regulated.
Example environment and labor laws. If you have exact laws for every known process, they will try to find loopholes to be cheaper, because there is only profit, no moral.
Sorry for late reply, but let’s take a look at some real world examples.
Today we have three health care models in developed nations: a cartel system founded, funded and protected by the US government; public health care in the UK and private free market health care with consumer protections in Germany.
I believe that we all can agree that cartel system is a big fucking no for every sane person. So we can focus on health care workers in the UK and Germany.
If you check British news for the last decade, you will see that doctors, nurses and support staff are on strikes all over UK pretty much every day. At least every week during “good” times. At the same time doctors, nurses and support staff in Germany usually strike once a year, maybe twice post pandemic. Why is that?
The issue is that if you work for NHS in the UK and the government refuses to give you a pay rise and forces you to work unpaid overtime hours you, as an NHS worker you only have one option - strike. If you work in a free market environment in the Germany, then you have at least one more alternative - pack your shit, put a resignation letter on the desk of your boss and go work for a different health care provider. Nationalised system robs workers of their right to participate in a free market and seek better opportunities.