I listened to this story on NPR today. The German health care system is amazing -- actually their attitude towards it is amazing...it's all about solidarity. It's been this way for at least 125 years -- why can't the U.S. figure it out? Sometimes I don't understand what Americans are so patriotic about. Germany, yes, *Germany* has more compassion than we do.

Quoted: All German workers pay about 8 percent of their gross income to a nonprofit insurance company called a sickness fund. Their employers pay about the same amount. Workers can choose among 240 sickness funds. Basing premiums on a percentage-of-salary means that the less people make, the less they have to pay. The more money they make, the more they pay. This principle is at the heart of the system. Germans call it "solidarity." The idea is that everybody's in it together, and nobody should be without health insurance.