THIS is what Healthcare is all about ...

[DFW]

147. We don't even have it that good in Germany

Of course, when it has ANYthing at all that involves paperwork, the EU seems to have an unwritten law that if there are two ways to do something, one easy and straightforward and one impossibly complicated with thousands of unnecessary regulations and involving piles of paperwork and months of delay, they will choose the latter.

Still, when my wife had cancer, even though they endangered her life by making her wait 5 months between the first operation that showed she had small cancerous lesions and the second one where they removed almost everything plus the lymph nodes on her left side (might not have been necessary if they had done the second operation right away), it didn't cost anything for her treatment when they finally got around to it. Now, Germany does have this highly unfair two class healthcare system. If you have a "standard" health insurance, you have to wait to see a doctor, sometimes months, depending on what ails you. If you have ""privat," then you get the bill, pay it yourself, and then submit it for reimbursement to your private (and VERY expensive, usually around $3000 a month) health insurance carrier.

My wife had "second class" insurance, but after her second operation, the brutal one, she stayed a month in the hospital, had months of chemo, six weeks of radiation, and then a month's rehab at one the the many cancer rehab spas around Germany. Hers was in the Black Forest, and was specifically for recovering victims of breast and thyroid cancer, so the patients were almost all women. Spouses/partners are not allowed overnight visits until the last weekend, and this place was out in the middle of nowhere, so we communicated by phone until I was allowed to stay over.

Her insurance paid for both operations, the chemo, the radiation, and the rehab spa, even the train tickets down to the town where the spa was located and back. And this is SECOND CLASS treatment in Germany.

Now, my wife was luckier than Jeff--she made it back to the light at the end of the tunnel, and she has been cancer-free for 13 years now. She comes from a long line of women in her family that all had cancer and beat it to live into their nineties. I, on the other hand, come from a long line of men and women who had cancer and didn't survive to tell the tale. When (not if) it's my turn, I hope to have treatment as good and as humane as Jeff got. If not, I hope to have treatment as good and as humane as my wife got.

I'm an American with an American health care plan. It's better than it was, but I'd still advise against on making any bets in my favor.