About 87 percent of the residents of Germany have statutory health insurance, i.e. GKV. As of May 2005, the GKV relied on 321 non-profit sickness funds to collect premiums from their members and pay health care providers according to negotiated agreements. Those who are not insured this way, mainly civil servants and the self-employed, receive health care through private for-profit insurance.
An estimate of 0,3 percent of the German population (around 250,000 people) has no health insurance at all. Some of them are so rich that they do not need itbut most of them are poor and receive health care through social assistance.
Statutory health insurance
There are three different categories of sickness funds: primary funds, substitute funds and special funds. Some workers are required to be members of the primary funds, e.g. if they earn less than the than the income ceiling (2006: EUR 3,937.50 per month / EUR 47,250.00 per year). Those earning more than that ceiling may be members on a voluntary basis, or they may have a choice of funds. Some of them automatically become members of a particular fund for example because of their occupation (company-based funds)...
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