Here's an idea. If other countries can provide healthcare for much less per patient, why can't they sell that to Americans?
In other words, allow US citizens to "opt out" of the US healthcare system and participate in the German one? You'd have to make some allowances for replacing taxes with costs, billing, and allow "German" healthcare to operate in the US ...
Basically every bit of the current system, from how much people are paid to how a hospital looks like, is a side effect of the way we pay for healthcare, and the way we decide which provider to select. So we cannot just wave a magic wand and get the German system, as a whole lot of capital decisions are now just straight out wrong.
We see similar things in education. People wonder how many European systems are cheaper than US universities: Well, it's very easy to see once you attend a university in Spain and then one in the US. The shape of the university, from facilities to salaries to class sizes, make them look like completely different organisms, even though 18 year olds come in from one side and come out with degrees in the other. And note that this is also connected to healthcare: How many doctors do we train, or bring in from other countries? How many years do they spend training, and how much debt do they incur getting training? How much are they going to ask in pay just to handle that debt?
Changing the US system is a very good idea, but the changes would be very traumatic to most people working for the system, or invested in the system. All of them would lobby against changes that make their lives worse, and therefore makes legislature that makes the change happen very difficult to pass.
Sure it’s fine. It’s also a significant pay cut for almost every American doctor.
Normal specialists in the US out-earn chief physicians in Germany by hundreds of thousands of dollars. All the fringe benefits in the world aren’t gonna buy you a new boat.
Are you comparing residents to specialists? They're not at all comparable. Residents in the US are typically within 3–7 years of graduating med school and are not able to practice independently. Specialists have typically finished 6–9 years of training after graduating medical school and are independent practitioners.
The systems are so different there's no product to sell, it's a whole system of healthcare that permeates through society... You can't sell a national-level system of healthcare as a product, it's done through policy.
Healthcare insurance works when everyone including currently healthy people participate. What would happen is only Americans needing an expensive healthcare signing in.
In other words, allow US citizens to "opt out" of the US healthcare system and participate in the German one? You'd have to make some allowances for replacing taxes with costs, billing, and allow "German" healthcare to operate in the US ...