Annette Bordeaux

I'm writing a newspaper article about the German healthcare system, and one point I want to make is that there are many hospital beds in Germany. Why are there so many?

Germany's universal health insurance system requires a minimum number of acute hospital-care beds per head of population.

In Germany, the hospital-bed quota is set at 8.3% of total hospital capacity as of 2014, compared with 5.9% in France and 1.8% in Britain -- according to data from the OECD (pdf) check here

Many believe that this explains why so many hospitals have been built recently across Germany's rural areas, where there are often few doctors or general practitioners willing to work.

The OECD puts the number at 8.3% of total hospital capacity as of 2014, compared with 5.9% in France and 1.8% in Britain.

The OECD puts the number at 8.3% of total hospital capacity as of 2014, compared with 5.9% in France and 1.8% in Britain. This is based on OECD data from 2014.

The OECD also says that Germany was below average in terms of how much time patients had to wait for specialist treatment after being referred by their GP (18 days on average), which is a key indicator for measuring access to care.

Hospitals are funded by the states through regional sickness funds.

Hospitals are funded by the states through regional sickness funds. These sickness funds are public and pay for medical treatment in hospitals. They also offer other services, such as outpatient care and rehabilitation. As a result, they manage a large part of Germany's health system.

The hospital funding system has its roots in history: In 1948, the new German constitution established a federal state with 16 separate Länder (states). Each Land has its own parliament and government to represent local needs. The federal government is responsible for making some laws at national level but not others; these responsibilities were divided among six areas known as "baskets." This system was designed so that each basket would be handled separately by either the state or federal levels of government—and it largely still holds true today.