BERLIN (AP) — Derided by many economists for years for insisting on a balanced budget and criticized for a health care system seen as bloated and overly expensive, Germany has found itself well equipped now to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
Germany and South Korea? Nearly everyone has done better than America.
Science!
Meantime in the U.S., some protesters have taken to the streets — supported by President Donald Trump’s tweets — to demand an end to virus-related shutdowns
These astroturfed right-wing death cults merit zero attention. Meanwhile, nurses reading the names of their fallen colleagues, as well as all of the medical professionals begging for Personal Protective Equipment, receive minimal attention.
Welcome to TrumpAmerica.
The contrast with the us is stark. Quick response by the central government. Ramping up testing immediately. Contract tracing. Good, free public hospitals which were cleared to deal with cases.
And in the case of Germany a good efficient unemployment system (paying 60% of wages to keep people in their jobs for a period of time) has prevented economic collapse.
And a media system that did not promote populist fantasies.
The last may be the big difference. Germany lacks the rabid right wing (aka Nazi) press like the us and England have with the Murdoch press, and Italy has with berlisconi. There was no mixed messaging, just responsible press coverage.
And the South Korean press (like that in Hong Kong and Taiwan) treated the subject seriously.
Trump and his toadie’s deserve the blame in the us, but they are in partnership and at times are controlled by Murdoch and his fascist ecosystem. Hard to say who is more at fault.
And Germany has its share of 4th Reich wannabee’s, that they were able to keep in check, as opposed to having Angela Merkel egging them on.
Good heavens Miss Merkel, you’re beautiful!
Hah. They say its all in the eye of the beholder.
Trumpanistan, home of the Trumpanzees.
And to think, President Truman tried to get universal healthcare back in the 40’s, post war, which was shot down. Germany loses the war, yet puts in place a robust universal system, which has saved many lives. Beyond irony, into tragedy. Let us all learn from this. The needs of the many outweigh the greed of the few. Live long and prosper everyone. Let us learn from others’ successes.
The lede of this article, saying that Germany’s response has been good because of its fiscal austerity, is completely unsupported. South Korea runs persistent deficits and has also had a good response–the author doesn’t mention that.
“Ich bin ein Berliner” has a different connotation now.
If only we had the same universal access to healthcare and smart, prudent national leadership …
Okay…here in Germany we do not have free public hospitals – I have no idea where/why this got started in the US but this is false. We are required to have health coverage (think “Obamacare”) – you have the option of choosing to pay into a statutory (government-regulated) health coverage (known as Krankenkassen) or, if you choose (again, think Obamacare) you can go with private health insurance (Krankenversicherung). Ninety percent of Germans are in a statutory health fund (my husband and I belong to Techniker Krankenkasse, one of the largest, if not the largest). I pay part and my employer pays part (my share is, IIRC, about 800€/month currently, but it’s tied to my income)…
Also: contact tracing is being discussed now – Germans are very sensitive about people tracking them and there is a debate currently ongoing, but not yet decided. (There was an article in NYT the other day, if you want to read about it…)
Ummmm…this 60% arrangement is not the normal unemployment, but a special thing right now. German unemployment insurance used to be better but a while back they reduced unemployment benefits (Arbeitslosengeld) under Hartz 4, which (unfortunately) has hurt long-term unemployed — but that’s another topic altogether.
I would say little rather than no. We have our crazies here and they have their own media, etc., but luckily it really hasn’t hit the mainstream like in the US.
Lizzymom: You are technically perfectly correct about the statutory/private health insurance. However, since you need to work really hard NOT to be covered, and especially even if you’re losing your job, you still retain your health insurance, it gives the impression to Americans that they are “free”. After all, even if you have to undergo terribly complex surgeries or treatments, you normally don’t even have co-pay for that. In America, the best health insurances’ co-payments can wreck you financially.
About Kurzarbeitergeld: After recent changes, you get at least 70% of your last earnings starting in the 4th month (77% in households with children) and 80% of your last earnings starting in the 7th month. Compared to America, this is a heaven of stability.
And that we don’t have the Murdoch filth is one of the biggest civilizatory advantages I would list.
I am very familiar with the US system. I was living in the States in the late 1990s when my first husband got sick and died. He was covered on my employer-paid health — I had the option of a HMO or Blue Cross. I chose the former, mostly because I was still quite young and healthy and BC/BS required premiums whereas the HMO was basically cost free for me. During the last year of hubby’s life he had multiple surgeries, was in the ICU several times and in the transplant ward for a time. With all of the tests, surgeries, etc., I literally never saw a bill (but knew from colleagues with Blue Cross that they had a lot of paperwork) except for one radiology bill that was mistakenly sent to me. Also $2 copays. I knew very much how lucky I was then, as I had also see my folks having to send crap in to Blue Cross for handling (they’re well into their 80s today).
The last hospital stay that I had here I had a copay of 10€ / night - for a while there was a copay each quarter when you went to your doctor’s office (not sure what numbskull decided that was a good idea, but even the doctors complained). And, of course, copays on (some) meds, dental work, etc. ut, of course, a lot of this all depends on the fact that everybody pays in.. This is what they were trying for with the Obamacare exchanges and it was beginning to pay off when IMPOTUS got “elected”…
The legal requirement for health coverage is that which allows people to retain their coverage — because, unlike in the States I do not have to go with the healthcare my employer selects, i.e., it is a personal decision like car insurance or personal banking.
Kurzarbeitgeld is different than Arbeitslosengeld. The former is for people who are “laid off” I.e., technically still employed, just working “shorter hours” (hence Kurzarbeit or “short work”), even if those hours are, for the time being, zero. It’s usually just transitory, and, again, the raising of the sum (Erhöherung) also part of the corona package. There’s an article about the changes in today’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, if you are Interested and can read German 
But, yes, for many in the US it looks utopian because the system there is so damned broken.
Even more irony than that. The movement for universal health care in germany started with some guy named Otto Eduard Leopold. Otherwise known as The Iron Chancellor. He recognized that if you wanted a military/industrial powerhouse in a country of limited population and resources, even your proles had to be at least somewhat healthy. (In contrast, almost 40% of volunteers for the british army at the opening of WW1 were rejected as medically unfit.)
So even if you are a complete authoritarian warmongering nationalist, you can recognize that a healthy population makes for a more powerful nation.
And, of course, the British NHS was started when they realized that sickly men do not good soldiers make…!
The point was that money is available in Germany, because of Germany’s fiscal austerity. This is one aspect of Germany’s success, but it is not all of it, nor does it mean that only a country with a history of fiscal austerity can run a successful anti-corona campaign.
I agree. I live in Germany as well, and the social system isn’t perfect, but it is a fine system. And heavenly in comparison to the system of the US.
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