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Comment by lnsru | Hacker News Reader

I Germany you pay close to 1000$ monthly too for public health insurance. It covers whole family, that is single advantage. However better treatments cost something, but mostly <500€. That’s ok too.

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Sorry, but that's just wrong, the maximum you're paying for public health insurance (as an employee) in Germany is around 7.5% of your pre-taxed income. BUT, there is a limit called "Beitragsbemessungsgrenze" which caps the amount of yearly income when calculating the amounts. The cap is currently at 58050 Euros, which translates to roughly 385 Euros.

Only if you also include the public pension and unemployment insurance deductions (both of which are also percentage based and capped) you'll max out at about 1050 Euros.

Let’s face the truth. It does not matter if it’s paid by me or partially by my employer, the health insurance costs me 779,5€ every month. I don’t get that money to my account. It’s AOK Bayern basic package and not that far from 1000$.

Wow I had no idea it was that expensive in Germany.

How do people cope that are on minimum wage?

Half of it is payed by the employer. You pay around 7.5% of your income before taxes (up to a certain limit aka Beitragsbemessungsgrenze).

Many countries use this trick “payed by employer” trying to hide the real amount of taxes. 385€ does not sound that bad, but in the reality it’s twice that with another half “paid by employer”.

It's not, see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29373722

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