Health Care in Germany (Freedom Ascendant)

Health Care in Germany once involved a series of government pension programs that would pay out for everything a person would need - hospital visits, surgery, medicines, doctor visits - but a series of government scandals and cost overruns in the late 1980s, along with the looming funding crisis of the retirement system meant a restructiring of how Germany handled health care for a nation of over 100 million Germans.

The Health Care Payments and Insurance Reform Act of 1991 contained the following provisions:
 * All those born on/after 1-1-1974 and before 1-1-1981 would pay into the public health pension for 15 years, but would not receive any benefits out;
 * All those born on/after 1-1-1981 would pay into the public health pension for 10 years, but would not receive any benefits out;
 * Thereafter, those born on/after 1-1-1974 would pay the same amount of money into a private health savings account, to be used for all health care, such as prescription medicines, doctor visits, surgeries, hospital visits, preventative surgeries, and other related expenses;
 * The health savings account would be private and inheritable by will;
 * As of the 2006 amendment, a debit card would be used to pay the expenses, using a special debit machine at health service providers to verify it's an authorized health purchase;
 * Money paid for health insurance is untaxed (reduces your taxable income);
 * Germans with long-term health conditions (what Americans would call 'pre-existing conditions') are placed in separate, high-risk pools, so that other Germans do not suffer higher insurance payments because of it;
 * Germans could get health insurance from work, or privately; private group health insurance can be purchased from any German Land, and if you choose to do so, your company will increase your compensation by the amount it would have paid for its own health insurance plan;
 * Germans who have a net worth over 1,000,000 DM must pay an exit tax equal to 5 years' payments into the public pension system and stop paying into the pension, but would also no longer receive government-funded health services;
 * Germans who are currently drawing on the health pension who can afford to, can pay an exit tax equal to 5 years' payments and stop paying into the pension;
 * Foreigners who become naturalized citizens of any age will not be eligible for public pensions.