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Comment by TheCoelacanth | Hacker News Reader

Don't almost 90% of people in Germany have public insurance with only a bit over 10% having private insurance?

Probably, but that's still about 10 million people with private insurance, which is 1/3 of Canada's population. The point is, private insurance doesn't have to be a nightmare. That is not the only factor. Actually I think private insurance generally had the potential to be much better than public insurance. However there seem to be a number of additional factors that make US private insurance such a nightmare.

Usually people will have both, since basic government insurance, I believe, is mandatory in most of those countries.

> Actually I think private insurance generally had the potential to be much better than public insurance

Why? Maybe private care is better than public care, i don't know, but insurance? Swisslife (one of the best/most efficient in my country) reimburse 65 to 67% of their anual income, so roughly 33% of what you're giving them goes into administration/coordination fees. Public insurance? 20% of the money they receive via taxes are used for administration/coordination.

So if i had a choice, i would pay a premium on public insurance (more taxes, or instead, asking my bosses to give the 120€/mo to the public insurance instead of paying swisslife). Better ROI.

It doesn't have to be a nightmare as long as there is extremely stiff competition from public insurance?

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