The United States’ health care system has shown some various similarities compared to that of Germany health system in several ways; though there are a few notable differences. Firstly, is that division of public and private sectors and is sponsored typically by the public funds. In fact, recent studies indicate Germany's healthcare system is considered better, to a certain extent, compared to that of the US. Notably, the healthcare system of the two countries is reluctant to use government income on health sector despite the fact that they are among the countries that have lower life expectancies around the globe. In the recent times, the United States has come across numerous problems in access to equitable patient care as well as cost-effectiveness, and to a smaller degree in organizing the overall healthcare of its citizens.
Medication Coverage
In the United States, there is total absence of a national system that allows access to health insurance for all its residents. In most cases, health insurance is purchased by unemployed individuals from the private health insurance companies. Studies indicate that 61% of health insurance cases in the US are registered at their workplace i.e., employers are mandated by law to ensure all their employees have health insurance coverage. In the other hand, in the US there is a public health insurance program known as Medicare which provides patient care coverage for the elderly and disabled people. Also, Medicaid provides healthcare cover for particularly disadvantaged groups ranging the aged, families with dependent children, and the blind. Notably, the retired people and children have choices for health insurance treatment in the US if not previously covered by Medicare and Medicaid. However, the US retired residents do not meet requirements for Medicaid unless they have over 65 years of age. Germany’s healthcare system appears to be much more different when equated to the United States healthcare system in that Germany’s healthcare systems offer general healthcare for all citizens who meet the requirements. Its government, according to the law, is mandated to provide medical health covers to all groups of individuals ranging from disadvantaged groups, elderly, unemployment insurance covers and other forms of social welfare (Ridic et al, 2012)
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Requirements to get a Referral to see a Specialist
In both countries, their programs put in place to give a better chance to those disadvantaged groups including the unemployed to access healthcare services with much ease. In the United States, an individual has to visit Primary Care Physician who evaluate their distress and if essential, make a recommendation to the professional. However if the health arrangement requires them to see more than one preferred specialist, an individual is requested to bring that information to their appointment, then the insurance and referral information are verified after contacting their insurance companies for referral requirements. After that interview with the specialist once the health plan has approved the referral. The provision of healthcare in Germany is a market concern approved out by private benefactors and private hospitals. It takes about one or two weeks to get an appointment with a specialist (Ridic et al, 2012).
Coverage for preexisting conditions
The United States unlike German health care system does not have a universal medical cover for its citizens. This may be attributed to the fact that most of its health care is privatized making most of its population to have a private health insurance (Hall & Lord., 2014). Most of the private insurers before the introduction of the Affordable Care Act usually take people applying for the individual insurance through medical underwriting in order to determine the health status of the people applying for the insurance. They either do not cover people with preexisting conditions because of the high cost associated with managing such conditions. In addition, they might decide to charge them a higher premium or even exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions. The introduction of the Affordable care law in US in 2014 allows for the coverage of the preexisting conditions (Hall & Lord., 2014). Unlike the health care system in United States, German offers universal health care to all its citizens. It also caters for preexisting conditions. The health insurance provides home nursing care to the aging population of Germany (Ridic et al.,2012). In addition, the German health insurance allows a patient to see any doctor (Ridic et al.,2012).unlike in United States where visits to the doctor are based on the type of the health insurance that one possesses (Hall & Lord., 2014).
Conditions in the Two Healthcare Systems
Despite the introduction of Obamacare in 2010 which stipulates all its citizens ought to have healthcare insurance covers, there is still an alarming rate of a high number of peoples, approximately 26 million, who lack insurance covers to date. In the other hand, in Germany, about 74% of their citizens have up-to-date received medical cover following the introduction of Sickness Insurance Act in the early 1880s. This act is supposed to provide health insurance to less disadvantaged groups in the society (Maskileyson, 2014).
Financial implications
The German healthcare scheme is challenged by difficulties in organizing care and regulating charges. The law requires that the sickness fund should offer a set of benefits to the various groups in Germany. However, it has been recently patient cost sharing is high a situation which ends jeopardizing medical care for its citizens. The financial healthcare system is merely in cases whereby the some of the disability funds are channeled to those who those who unemployed is caused by sickness. The residents of Germany depend on extra seriously on the governmental covert hat mainly comprises of 85-90% of the entire residence. The government has no provisions that allow its work with a particular of choice and most of seeking medication elsewhere thus encountering extra medical costs.
In the United States, Medicare patients are required to pay a specified amount to enjoy the services provided by Medicare program. They also mandated to pay an additional amount of money for the long-term hospital services. These two extra costs have negatively impacted the patients in the attempt of the disadvantaged groups to access an improved patient healthcare in U.S (Chenet al, 2017).
References
Chen, M., Chen, W., & Tseng, T. (2017). Co-movements of returns in the health care sectors from the US, UK, and Germany stock markets: Evidence from the continuous wavelet analyses. International Review of Economics And Finance, 49484-498. doi:10.1016/j.iref.2017.02.009
Hall, M.A.,& Lord, R. (2014). Obamacare: what the Affordable Care Act means for patients and physicians. Bmj, 349 (7), g5376-g5376
http://insanemedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Obamacare-what-the-Affordable-Care-Act-means-for-patients-and-physicianspdf
Maskileyson, D. (2014). Healthcare system and the wealth–health gradient: A comparative study of older populations in six countries. Social Science & Medicine, 11918-26. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.013
Ridic, G., Gleason, S., Ridic, O., (2012). Comparisons of Health Care Systems in the United States, Germany and Canada. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633404/
