I've been wondering whether I should post or not, but I really cannot understand why everyone seems to be talking so negatively about the German health care system so much. Health care is one of tge reasons we will not be moving back to the UK. Obviously, the private insurance isn't cheap, but neither is the private one in the UK. The state insurance gets automatically deducted from your salary, and spouse and children are insured at no extra cost.
I like the fact I can go and see a specialist straight away rather than seeing a GP and then having to wait 6montgs plus for a specialist appointment. And I am absolutely positive that had we stayed in the UK, we would still be waiting for a diagnosis for our ds', possibly even still waiting for an appointment for assessment.
Similarly, in the UK we had to wait over 6months to get ds1 heart murmur checked out. Here, for ds2, the heart murmur was checked out by sonography a few minutes after the paediatrician had detected the heart murmur at a regular check up.
So far we have not had to pay for any treatment, medicine or therapies for the dc ourselves.
For ourselves for medicine we have to pay a contribution. But in general, what I get, I am more than happy to pay a little more than I would in the UK.
Btw people on benefits are automatically insured through one of the state insurers.
Don't want to glorify the German healthcare system by any means, and I am sure there is plenty room for improvement. But I still much prefer it to what we got in the UK.