Well, that's the way it is Brock.

I think the quality of health care here is as good as anywhere else, but it does kind of straddle a line between the UK and US model. You pay your national insurance which comes out of your wages and this is very good for cheap prescriptions and some types of surgery, but the more hi-tech surgeries are generally not covered by it as I found out recently. When it comes to health you only want the best and you want a procedure that will not leave you looking like a victim of a great white shark attack and that costs money, but thankfully I do have private insurance so cost does not matter to me. I've had this discussion a few times though with my wife wondering what people who don't have insurance or even the national insurance because of unemployment do. Apparently there are ways of getting your name on another family members national insurance, but really you cannot afford to be without private insurance. It is too risky not to. I find that I claim back a lot more than I put in, so it really it saves me money. I'm always in the hospital for something and I am back there today getting some surgery on my arm. It's the opposite for my wife who never gets sick. It's not expensive to cover yourself privately here though.