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hi, i have been meaning to join this discussion but wanted to doublecheck some things. the article that ray quoted and felt was well researched did not sit well with me. even though i left germany 25 yrs ago i thought things could not have changed that much. germans cannot switch and choose from over 200 ins. companies. most workers end up with "aok" allgemeine oeffentliche krankenkasse. the government mandated premiums to be deducted as of 7-09 from wages are at 14.9%. this is a SUBSTANTIAL income reduction. this covers only government legislated benefits, additional insurance coverage to take care of gaps is available but needs to be paid for. private insurance is available and has traditionally been obtained by members of the upper middle class. i remember very well how my mom would complain that private coverage ensured prompt appointments without a long wait. as a matter of fact, some doctors set aside blocks of time for just these patients. while i agree that reforms are necessary i can see plenty of pitfalls with the one-payer system. so far, any government run program i looked at is cost prohibitive and proper oversight not obtainable. as an example, my husband returned to the hospital after his dbs to run some additional programming. this involved an overnight stay. the hospital bill was $1100 but medicare paid over $5000 because the code used for this service had a payoff much higher than the actual charge. this was 3 yrs ago and i still can't believe it. i'm hoping somehow we can come up with a system that will benefit people not able to obtain insurance but i don't think this should be rushed through or we will get the same uneven results as seen in the different stimulus packages at a tremendous cost to us all. trauti ----- Original Message ----- From: "Murray Kastner" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 5:42 AM Subject: Re: Elephant in the Room > Single payer is the only system that works, and the Canadian system > proves it, as does the British, French and German. Conservatives are fond > of condemning single-payer systems, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn