Someone should maybe tell them that they shouldn't do that to themselves.
You can argue that it was set off when the Northern states passed laws that freed any slaves who set foot there and the Southern states demanded that the laws be abolished and all states be required to enforce slavery. They didn't get their way so they decided to throw a tantrum.
Of course even with that slavery remains the lynchpin of the whole thing.
Mind you, the German system is one of the most expensive in the world. It's also only of middling quality in terms of outcomes compared with other wealthy nations.
But it's still less than half as expensive as whatever it is the States are doing, still has effectively universal coverage, and is actually competitive with other wealthy nations.
All because we regulated the everliving shit out of the whole process. You can't as much as fart incorrectly in the German healthcare system without having an army of bureaucrats breathing down your neck in one of three prescribed breathing rhythms, one of which only applies if you farted in a hospital. Reports will be written, filed, and sent to recipients who can only change their mailing address on one of four specific days a year and only if they announced the move four weeks in advance by sending special crafted EDIFACT files to the right people.
As much as it sucks, that bureaucracy also shuts down a lot of nonsense. Insurance networks, deductibles, most copays, and ruinous hospital bills straight up don't exist because everyone in healthcare has zero leeway to do anything in a non-prescribed manner and the prescribed manner was designed to keep as many people as possible reasonably healthy.
It's a very German approach: Massively bureaucratic, regulated to an almost comical degree, and reasonably effective.
People in most parts of Germany see themselves as two things: Firstly, as someone from their own region. Secondly, as sometime who isn't Bavarian.
Those aren't even particularly fitting stereotypes. The common stereotype for Poles is that they're all car thieves. For Czechs... probably that they're even more drunk than us but that's just the default stereotype for everyone east of us.
(And of course both of those are just cultural memes and nothing I actually believe.)
Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
Though I won't let them breathe either, for sure.
Expected, though. The EC is not exactly known for having sensible opinions.
Heck, I'd love it if they added a toggle to not hard-pan all audio to the left channel and drop all input from my microphone until I restart Teams and log in again despite having logged in ten minutes ago.
Not a hardware issue; Linux handles NVMe and SATA drives just fine. They probably encrypted everything with BitLocker. Of course Linux can't access an SSD encrypted using a proprietary Microsoft software with keys that may no longer be accessible.
I mean, if they got fined something like 100 days' revenues¹ they'd change their tune right quick. European law allows for that kind of fine.
¹ One day's revenues being calculated as the total revenues in their last fiscal year divided by 365.
Oh, I love "other apps". My Teams once decided that obscure features like chats and calls belong in there.
Yes, Teams. Put your core functionality out of sight. That's exactly what I wanted.
It helps that much of this bureaucracy is invisible to the patient. You just go to the doctor and they scan your insurance card. That's it for billing as far as you're concerned.
What happens behind the scenes is a horrible mess that has been in the process of being digitalized for the last decade. But they did put up a nice facade that hides most of this.
By the way, that part about quarterly EDIFACT files to change addresses is actually how it works for health insurances. Of course they regularly screw this up and then everyone else has to deal with the mess... But that's just everyone who tries to bill them. Patients didn't even know it's a thing.