Maybe this changes too in the future?
E-Rezept was supposed to launch in 2022 but has been postponed until mid 2023. Some regions already tested it. It didn't work out well, so some regions dropped out of the testing phase. I'm pretty sure it won't work well at launch and we will have to rely on printed prescriptions for quite some time until all pharmacies and doctors use the new system.
Covid accelerated a lot of remote services.
But I suspect it is a difference in attitude. I think in Scandinavia we are generally far more enthusiastic about new things.
Germany has seen two dictatorships in the last century. The first one was more brutal, but the second one maintained a gigantic spying apparatus on its citizens, that took a large fraction of the state's budget.
If you contrast it with the US, you'll find some technologies earlier in use in Germany, like texting, and some stuff that just went different (credit vs. debit cards). And talk to someone from the US or even the UK about mandatory ID cards, and you'll hear different things about privacy.
I think this specifically is mostly to blame on bureaucracy and the federal system, not a reflection of general German luddism. Nobody really wants fax machines.
Not only did the nazis use the resident register to find undesirables, but also the soviet union used any and all avenues to spy and control people.
Privacy and scepticism of making the sate a mandatory middleman is deeply entrenched for historic reasons.
Specifically this cryptographically tight identification, electronic-only payment etc. are very contentious for this reason I believe.
But overall your point is still correct, there is a strong bias towards the status quo and the new thing has a lot of proving itself to do before being accepted.
Size of a country has nothing to do with this. Neighbouring Austria is tiny and is also federalized, with each state having several degrees of autonomy and potentially causing various bureocratic nightmares depending on what you want to do.
Same with Switzerland and its cantons.
Source: https://www.wondriumdaily.com/germanys-surveillance-system-i...
Currently was supposed to be in a pilot phase in two regions, but both of them cancelled it due to privacy concerns: https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/erezept-kelber-medizin-westf...
The health industry is very weird from top to bottom. True for most countries, but Germany certainly adds a few cherries on top. Or at least massively diluted cherry essences…
I just send an email what I need, they reply to me the same day or tomorrow that it's ready to be picked up. I got there, and get it in 2 min.
In most places it is hard enough to even get an Hausarzt to being with. You might just be lucky to live in a bigger city where you have the ability to choose.
LoL ok, just that GPs have no shortage of patients, but the other way around so since they're on such high demand and in low supply they can get away with many things. The market is in their favor by far.