Barozi on 24 May 2018
| ArnoldRimmer said: Germany here. Some 10-15 years ago health insurance became mandatory for almost everyone (except politicians and some others). At least in theory - for what may sound like a nice idea became a nightmare for many germans. Because the law that made health insurance mandatory decided that people who were uninsured back then and at some point wanted to get health insurance again would have to retroactively pay health insurance fees starting from the very day that this new law came into effect. But nobody informed these people who were uninsured about that new law and its consequences, so if someone didn't accidentally read about it - bad luck. Many only became aware of that problem years later, and by that time, they would have already had to pay thousands of euros, which most of them couldn't possibly afford. So in practice, there are currently tenthousands of germans who not only have had no health insurance for many years, but who also have no way of getting health insurance, because then they'd have to retroactively pay health insurance fees for many many years. And to make things worse, these people also basically can no longer get a job, because getting a job requires them to get health insurance... |
eh two mistakes in this post.
Health insurance IS mandatory for everyone. Politicians included. You might confuse that with public health insurance.
How would it be possible to inform previously uninsured people? The state doesn't have data on people who were never insured.
Also all federal laws have to be announced in the Bundesgesetzblatt which is freely available to everyone.
And last but not least "Unwissenheit schützt vor Strafe nicht".
