Interesting because that's so messed up! In the long run it would make sense to nationalize health insurance in the U.S., but the transition cost is huge. That's just arithmetic; the taxpayer is taking on 40 or 50 million new patients, while at the same time two percent of the GDP evaporates by eliminating ninety percent of the overhead for medical billing. Think of hundreds of thousands of insurance professionals who'd suddenly be out of jobs.
In contrast Germany has already got the basic GKV mechanism, all they need to do is expand the existing system's coverage by a tiny fraction; no economic convulsion, no new heavy taxes for anyone to pay, no large group of workers suddenly made redundant, and most important, no hordes of mouth-breathing voters freaking out over the phrase "socialized medicine" like they always do here in Jesusland. What's their excuse for not having patched that hole?
Yours WDK - WKiernan at gmail.com