Klein said that Germany has a growing social conscious among the people, which is one difference between its system and the United States. In Germany, there is a mandatory system that every worker can join, the patient never sees a bill, the patient has a free choice of doctors and has more say as to whether the hospital is necessary. Klein said that officials in Germany are looking to change the system because of demographic problems, similar to Social Security in the United States. In the future, the group receiving money from the system will be much larger than the group paying into the system. He said that there is a happy medium between the American system and where Germany and the European system are now.
People get older and draw out more than they pay in.
Health care fees come out of the employee's paycheck in Germany. It is better for the German economy if the country can keep the amount that employees pay out below 20 percent, Klein said. The German system functions on the principle of solidarity. It is a system that treats all humans as equals, who pay by their means and receive treatment according to needs. Klein used the example that in Germany, a bachelor and a man with a family would pay the same price for health care, despite the fact that the man with the family would be a larger risk.