What Germany’s Coal Miners Can Teach America About Medical Debt

From Noam N. Levey / KFF Health News: Germany, like the U.S., has a largely private healthcare system that relies on private doctors and private insurers. Like Americans, many Germans enroll in a health plan through work, splitting the cost with their employer. But Germany strictly limits how much patients have to pay out of their own pockets for a trip to the doctor, the hospital, or the pharmacy, making medical debt practically nonexistent.

Read the original story here.

Read more articles on healthcare systems related to wellbeing.

Issue Areas:

Employee Wellbeing, Medical Debt

Impact Areas:

Equity, Health and Wellness

Actors:

Government, Healthcare Organizations

Communities Served:

Workers

Strategies:

Easing Economic Burdens for Individuals

Success Factors:

Eliminating Barriers, Expanding Access, Help Rather Than Punishment, Meeting People Where They Are At, Overcoming the Big Challenges

Geographic Region:

Europe

Countries:

Germany

Date:

December 14, 2022

More Resources:

New data shows success of Durham’s guaranteed income program

From Sarah Krueger / WRAL News: Step Up Durham’s Guaranteed Basic Income Program gives 109 people who were formerly incarcerated $600 a month, no questions asked. The purpose of the monthly payments is to help people who may need extra...

Conversation with Alison Guzman

Alison Guzman is the Country Program Co-Director of MAPLE Microdevelopment Chile. As the co-director of a team based in Wallmapu (Mapuche Ancestral lands), they apply decolonizing methodologies, where indigenous local knowledge and local wisdom-based systems are prioritized to enhance an...

California helps college students cut their debt by paying them to help their communities

From Gail Cornwall / The Hechinger Report: In an effort to help lower student debt while benefiting the community, the #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program provides 3,200 students with service jobs and pays them $700 a month. Click here to read...

Conversation with Mette Beckhof

Mette Beckhof co-leads the local chapter of The Economy for the Common Good in Cologne/Bonn, Germany, which advocates an alternative economic model – one that is beneficial to all stakeholders in an organization. Mette Beckhof spoke with Ashley Hopkinson on...

What one county agency is doing to keep its employees whole

From Cheryl Splain / Knox Pages: The Knox County Department of Job & Family Services has implemented a two-pronged approach to improve the wellbeing of employees. One addresses immediate needs through counseling and additional employee benefits and then a longer...

Conversation with Ayomide Fatunde

Ayomide Fatunde is a Global Council member at WEAll. She is a Nigerian-American Regenerative Specialist with cross-cutting interests that span from battery thermal management to esotericism, skipping over to post-growth economics and then looping around to database architecture before taking...