HEALTH
Health insurance in Germany is available to everyone. Benefi ts are
broad and nationally uniform, with only minor variations among
plans. Th ey include free choice of doctors; unlimited physician
visits; preventive checkups; total freedom from out-of-pocket payments
for physician services; unlimited acute hospital care (with
a nominal co-payment); prescription drug coverage (with a minimal
co-payment); comprehensive dental benefi ts (with a 25–30%
co-payment); vision and hearing exams, glasses, aids, prostheses,
etc.; inpatient and psychiatric care (and outpatient psychiatric visits);
monthly home care allowances; maternity benefi ts; disability
payments; and rehabilitation and/or occupational therapy. Health
care expenditure was estimated at 10.5% of GDP. Expenditures on
health are among the highest in the world.
In 2004, there were approximately 362 physicians, 951 nurses,
78 dentists, and 58 pharmacists per 100,000 people. Th ere were
about 2,260 hospitals in Germany, with about 572,000 beds. A
gradual deinstitutionalization of people with chronic mental illness
has taken place, with the number of hospital beds declining
from 150,000 in the former West Germany in 1976 to a total of
69,000 in Germany as a whole as of 1995. Germany immunized
85% of children up to one year old against diphtheria, pertussis,
and tetanus.
Average life expectancy was 78.65 years in 2005. Infant mortality
was 4.16 per 1,000 live births in the same year, one of the lowest
in the world. As of 2002, the birth rate was estimated at 8.9 per
1,000 live births and the overall death rate at 10.4 per 1,000 people.
Contraceptive use is high. Nearly 75% of married women 15–49
used some form of birth control. Th e total fertility rate in 2000
was 1.4 children per woman throughout her childbearing years.
Th e maternal mortality rate was low at 8 deaths per 100,000 live
births.
Th e HIV/AIDS prevalence was 0.10 per 100 adults in 2003. As
of 2004, there were approximately 43,000 people living with HIV/
AIDS in the country. Th ere were an estimated 1,000 deaths from
AIDS in 2003.
Tobacco consumption has decreased signifi cantly from 2.4 kg
(5.3 lbs) in 1984 to 2.1 kg (4.6 lbs) a year per adult in 1995. Th e
heart disease average in Germany was higher than the European
average.