The German Health Care System

Who is covered?

Most German residents receive statutory coverage through one of 180 competing nongovernmental social insurers (or "sickness funds"). The statutory system is financed through employer and employee contributions, which, since 2009, are pooled into a central fund and redistributed among the sickness funds according to a sophisticated risk-adjustment formula.  Sickness funds offer a uniform benefit package covering most medical care, including physician and hospital services, prescription drugs, and dental care.  Self-employed, high income, and civil-service residents may opt for private insurance as an alternative to the statutory insurance system, and roughly 10 percent of the population does so. 

  For more information, read a Commonwealth Fund Profile of the German Health Care System.