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What do you mean by 'long term'? Two years, five years, ten years..? What is allowed is that the Krankenkassen are allowed to charge supplementary fees over and above the statutory premiums of 14.6% of income. This varies from time to time and between Krankenkassen, at the moment it ranges...

Can we go back a bit? Dynamic Spirt in Post 86 suggested that This is a large part of the explanation as to why the health care system in Germany is less affected by political differences between the parties. In my analysis the main reason for this is that the system, and its funding, has...

I am trying to point out that: there was a delay in the UK in implementing a lockdown and introducing social distancing - that is clearly a political failure. the structure of the health delivery arm of the Ministry of Health (aka the NHS) has made it over-centralised and inefficient. For...

Did I suggest it was?

The German and Austrian governments did not dither for so long as the UK before they introduced the 'lockdowns'. I attended a concert at the Philharmonie in Berlin on 6th March (Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and an eighty voice choir performing Beethoven's Oratorio in case you...

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Of course the politicians decide the top level of what has to be offered - nobody has suggested otherwise. The Bundestag (lower House) and Bundesrat (Upper House) agree what coverage has to be offered by the five statutory insurance systems, these being: health insurance insurance for accidents...

By avoidable deaths I mean the difference in deaths/million of the population. Austria and Germany are running at about 50 per million of the population and the UK (and it has to be said several other EU countries) are running at about 200 to 500 deaths per million of the population. The...

The engineering functions were centralised during the time of the Railway Executive and remained so. The operations and commercial departments still operated a little like the old railway companies and this was supported by the 1953 Transport Act. The rolling stock designs produced by the main...

The designs were driven (sorry!) by the engine power available at the time - bus engines were used. In the early days only some 110/125 bhp per engine was available which meant that the body had to be as light as possible. So the early models were mostly on 57ft underframes. As engine power...

Having written about the organisation of the German health system I have to report a developing scandal. For some reason the management of the Ernst von Bergmann clinic in Potsdam did not manage to control the spread of the Covid 19 virus within the hospital with the result that at least one...

I probably wasn't as clear as I could have been. Private health insurance is open to anybody, but in the case of people paying the statutory premiums it's an add-on. It is used in this circumstance to buy better 'hotel' care or additional treatments but you have to pay all the additional...

In view of the interest in the German system of healthcare (and social care generally) I thought I would be helpful to give a brief description of the German system and its history. I can claim to have some knowledge in this area as I lived and worked in Germany for some ten years in total and...

Mostly correct! There was a time before and during the First World War when all-over brown, and later crimson lake, was used for coaching stock as given in the GWR Modelling website <http://www.gwr.org.uk/index.html>. It states: For more details see the web page here. Even the GWR sometimes...

As I understood it at the time the air intakes were placed low down to avoid sucking in diesel engine exhaust fumes which tend to attach to the air flow along the top of the trains when moving at speed. It seemed to me to be the right call - a bit of a pong every so often instead of having...

Are these statements based on fact, in other words on published data which has been verified? Isn't that part of the reason the service is offered to potential customers? To make train travel more attractive?

The Mark 3s are fitted with 'Pullman' gangways, as were the BR Mk 1 and Mk 2 coaches and Gresley's and Bulleid's coaches before that. These were wider than the concertina type gangway bellows used by the GWR and LMS; the latter type was clipped together and the outer edge was supported from the...

The biggest single change to improve the air quality in the Paddington train shed was the fitting of effective exhaust filters to the Burger King kiosk near the end of platforms 7 and 8. :smile: From one day to the next the air was clearer...!

Ah! Envy politics... :rolleyes: Most of the space in commercial aeroplanes is given over to economy/tourist class seats. The 'elite' frequent flyers as you call them take up a small proportion of the seats on offer. The bulk of passengers are either going on holiday or visiting friends and...

That's an interesting one! The shareholders can get a motion passed at the Annual General Meeting to get the Board of Directors to take some specified action. However, this course of action may have an effect on Network Rail's spending - if it increases the Department of Transport and Treasury...