Germany's Health Care System

Abstract

Germany's universal health insurance plan is grounded in a social contract that places a strong emphasis on the provision of medical care to all citizens by private ambulatory care physicians who largely have clinical autonomy but who have relinquished their economic freedom to the professional associations that negotiate on their behalf with insurance organizations known as sickness funds. Hospital-based physicians, who are employees of the institutions for which they work, are paid by salary. Germany's health system is administered by private not-for-profit organizations, authorized by law to wield power on behalf of payers and providers. The federal government intervenes only . . .