Originally Posted by StefanG

In Germany they are right now arguing in their coalition talks about the healthcare system - one party also wants to switch everything to a single payer system.

The thing is: the german system is not bad per se - but it rewards people with higher income by making it possible for them to switch to private insurances and pay less than "normal" people.

These private insurance companies have higher payouts for the same procedures as the state insurances and so doctors prefer privately insured patients.

which leads to people with private insurance getting an appointment whenever they want and the rest has to wait.

what is now in the talks is that payouts should be identical no matter how the patient is insured

but that means for example that for a flu diagnose with a pack of aspirin the doctor always receives a max payout of let's say 50 Euro from the insurance companies and he cannot ask the patient for additional money.

Now this way you keep the healthcare costs in check and avoid the american situation of getting billed $500 or $1000 for the same thing.

but even if it would benefit every American, they still oppose it mostly cause it's not "capitalism"