Those German politicians who are eager to dismantle the Social Welfare State (Sozialstaat) would do well to examine the different approaches to healthcare access and delivery in the US and Germany. This was brought home this week after Der Spiegel published a report it had commissioned with the alarming title: “Increasing Number of Germans without Health Insurance“:
Die schlechte wirtschaftliche Lage verführt viele Deutsche offenbar zum Risiko: In den vergangenen Jahren ist die Zahl der Bürger, die über keinerlei Krankenversicherungsschutz verfügen, deutlich gestiegen.
The report was picked up by the major media outlets. How bad is the situation of uninsured Germans? Der Spiegel found that there were appproximately 188,000 in 2003, a “significant” increase since 1995, when there were only 105,000 uninsured. Okay, 188,000 out of a population of 82 million.
If we had the same percentage of uninsured population in the United States, the number would be approximately 750,000. Instead, over 45 million Americans are without health insurance. You would think a dire situation like this would be front-page news in every major publication. You would be sorely mistaken. Americans are told they have the best medical care in the world; the fact that huge numbers have no access to it is an unfortunate fact of life. Tough luck!
Actually, the Washington Post does have a front-page article on the healthcare crisis in America in today’s issue .
The number of Americans without health insurance for all of 2003 hit a record 45 million, or 15.6 percent of the population, the highest percentage since 1998, when it was 16.3 percent, according to the latest Census Bureau figures. An analysis by the Lewin Group for Families USA, however, estimates that over a two-year period the number of people lacking insurance for at least one month is much higher and rising.
In 2003-2004, about 85 million were uninsured for some period of time, an increase of 12.7 million over the 1999-2000 estimates. Uninsured rates for Hispanics jumped from 50 percent to 61 percent.
This is truly a scandalous condition which will eventually damage the productivity of the American workfore. Already, the statistics around infant mortality, life expectancy, obesity, etc. are unfavorable – more like one might see in a Third World country instead of the world’s biggest economy. When will Americans demand the same health care that their German counterparts have?
