“In Germany it's impossible to go bankrupt for medical bills, because even if you are bankrupt, ... the social solidarity system pays for your medical bills. The idea is, if you do have financial problems and a lot of worries for other reasons, you do not need to have another burden in not being able to pay medical bills.” ReasonProblemWorryImpossibleFinancialBurdenMedicalSolidarity Author:Karl Lauterbach
“In comparison to the U.S. health care system, the German system is clearly better, because the German health care system works for everyone who needs care, ... costs little money, and it's not a system about which you have to worry all the time. I think that for us the risk is that the private system undermines the solidarity principle. If that is fixed and we concentrate a little bit on better competition and more research, I think the German health care system is a nice third way between a for-profit system on the one hand and, let's say, a single-payer system on the other hand.” ThinkingCareWorryNiceRiskCompetitionHealth CareComparisonSolidarity Author:Karl Lauterbach
“The U.S. has a system that does have a poor cost-benefit ratio. I mean, 40 million people lack insurance; another 30 million or so are underinsured. The people who are insured do have to worry whether they are able to pay the bills. People become bankrupt because they cannot pay the medical bills, and there are vast differences in the quality of care depending on how much you are prepared and able to pay. I think the system is not working well.” PeopleThinkingMeanCarePoorQualityWorryMedical Author:Karl Lauterbach