In Austria it's harder to get exempt. If you rack up 2% of your net income in those charges you can apply for exemption. 80% of Austrians never have been exempt, only 4% sometimes hit the cap and about 12% get an exemption due to specific illnesses which are costly.
I have seen the system here and some of the effects that come out of it are interesting. Because if the cost of a drug falls below the "recipe fee" it bypasses the insurance and is directly charged there is a mysterious amount of drugs close or below the recipe fee.