I am an American, living in Berlin for 7 years. The idea that the healthcare system here works should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
The Good:
- Virtually no medical bills. For a family of four, with two pregnancies behind us and now two kids, that is no small thing
- When my daughter snapped her femur in two at the tender age of 2, the system sprang into action, put her back together, and looked after her until she was fully healed.
The Bad:
- Receptionists see it as their job to turn away any new patients. They can be very nasty.
- The pediatricians offices are overrun. Good luck getting an appointment. If we need our child to be seen that day, we have to spend up to an hour calling on the phone trying to get through to the reception so they can give us a time slot for that afternoon. Our pediatrician also doesn't offer services that usually should be offered, such as checking pin worm strips for signs of pin worm.
- When I got seriously depressed last autumn (yes, people, sh*t happens), I couldn't find a psychologist or psychiatrist. They were all full. The problem festered for months. Eventually I got into a group therapy for depression. I now pay (a lot, 100%) out of pocket for a psychologist in California (via zoom). The psychiatrist I found to subscribe me an antidepressant (my primary care doctor refused), is the aunt of a friend of my wife. She is retired, so there is no insurance coverage - I pay 100% out of pocket for our consultations and the medication, and she lives 4.5 hours away. I drove once to see her, so that she would take me on as a patient, and now we do phone consultations as needed. I still call psychiatrists practices now and then, only to be told they are full, and I don't have a chance of ever getting an appointment.
- I wanted to make an eye appointment last week, and at a practice that is closer to where we recently moved, and where my wife goes to. I dreaded calling them up and trying to convince them that they should take me on as a new patient, or that since my wife already goes there, I'm not really a new patient, etc etc. I instead opted to get the next available appointment at my old eye doctor, far away in Berlin, and that appointment is in mid January.
- When I first was in Berlin years ago, my eye was hurting me. I called the eye doctor to make an appointment, and got one for 4 weeks out. I told them it was urgent, and they said that I should go to the ER if that is the case. I went to the ER, and they sent me away, saying it wasn't urgent. When I finally did go to the eye appointment 4 weeks later, after 4 weeks of discomfort, the eye doctor said I had an eyelash stuck under my eyelid and scolded me for waiting so long to take care of it.
So - yes, there is universal healthcare in Berlin. And maybe if I had private insurance rather than public insurance, I would be more able to get care. Yes, I speak the German language fluently, but I don't know how to be an assertive bully in German who can barrel through the wall of "Nein" that you always get. I'm grateful that the system helped my wife through her pregnancies and my children through their problems. I'm resentful about how I have fared in the system. In the United States, my access to care and quality of care was much better.
The Good:
- Virtually no medical bills. For a family of four, with two pregnancies behind us and now two kids, that is no small thing
- When my daughter snapped her femur in two at the tender age of 2, the system sprang into action, put her back together, and looked after her until she was fully healed.
The Bad:
- Receptionists see it as their job to turn away any new patients. They can be very nasty.
- The pediatricians offices are overrun. Good luck getting an appointment. If we need our child to be seen that day, we have to spend up to an hour calling on the phone trying to get through to the reception so they can give us a time slot for that afternoon. Our pediatrician also doesn't offer services that usually should be offered, such as checking pin worm strips for signs of pin worm.
- When I got seriously depressed last autumn (yes, people, sh*t happens), I couldn't find a psychologist or psychiatrist. They were all full. The problem festered for months. Eventually I got into a group therapy for depression. I now pay (a lot, 100%) out of pocket for a psychologist in California (via zoom). The psychiatrist I found to subscribe me an antidepressant (my primary care doctor refused), is the aunt of a friend of my wife. She is retired, so there is no insurance coverage - I pay 100% out of pocket for our consultations and the medication, and she lives 4.5 hours away. I drove once to see her, so that she would take me on as a patient, and now we do phone consultations as needed. I still call psychiatrists practices now and then, only to be told they are full, and I don't have a chance of ever getting an appointment.
- I wanted to make an eye appointment last week, and at a practice that is closer to where we recently moved, and where my wife goes to. I dreaded calling them up and trying to convince them that they should take me on as a new patient, or that since my wife already goes there, I'm not really a new patient, etc etc. I instead opted to get the next available appointment at my old eye doctor, far away in Berlin, and that appointment is in mid January.
- When I first was in Berlin years ago, my eye was hurting me. I called the eye doctor to make an appointment, and got one for 4 weeks out. I told them it was urgent, and they said that I should go to the ER if that is the case. I went to the ER, and they sent me away, saying it wasn't urgent. When I finally did go to the eye appointment 4 weeks later, after 4 weeks of discomfort, the eye doctor said I had an eyelash stuck under my eyelid and scolded me for waiting so long to take care of it.
So - yes, there is universal healthcare in Berlin. And maybe if I had private insurance rather than public insurance, I would be more able to get care. Yes, I speak the German language fluently, but I don't know how to be an assertive bully in German who can barrel through the wall of "Nein" that you always get. I'm grateful that the system helped my wife through her pregnancies and my children through their problems. I'm resentful about how I have fared in the system. In the United States, my access to care and quality of care was much better.