Health inequalities reflect socio-economic divide, Mujaheed Shaikh says in the Financial Times

Would a common health system lead to greater equality and public health in Germany? While Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats decided against breaking up the current two-tier system, in the Financial Times, Professor of Health Governance Mujaheed Shaikh takes a look on what ought to change. “Usually, the people that are part of the private system have better health and better education and, of course, high income,” Shaikh says. “This essentially creates this inequality within the insurance system, where risk pooling is affected.”

According to Shaikh, another reason for inequality was the reimbursement scheme of private practitioners: They “get paid faster and they get paid much more . . . I think, if you change this reimbursement scheme, things will automatically change.” Moreover, Germany’s health system would benefit from digitising its health data – not only during the current pandemic.

Read the full article here.