definitely the case in Germany. If you're unemployment and not looking for a job or exempt from it(sickness, poverty, ...), you're going to need to pay on your own.
So... not the case in Germany. You don't need to be employed or in social programs, you can just pay money. In Germany it's a fixed amount, less than you would pay if you had income, and they can't refuse you.
I know to a European this might sound like the only two options, but pre-Obamacare, and very possibly again if the US can't get its shit together, it was impossible to buy health insurance no matter how much money you had for a large number of unemployed or self-employed people.
> You don't need to be employed or in social programs, you can just pay money
If there are different pricing tiers based on employment status, then the healthcare system is contingent on employment by definition. It's commendable that the American and European healthcare systems aren't contingent on pre-existing conditions, but that's a distinct issue.
If you are employed the employer pays half and if you are not they don't (somewhat obviously, since if they don't exist they can't). This is only "pricing tiers" in the most vapid sense.
That description could just as easily be for the US. Maybe you disagree with the terminology, but when people talk about their health insurance being predicated on their employment, this is what they are talking about.
Obamacare, for all its controversy and limitations, removed the ability to screen for pre-existing condition which was a very important feature. Prior, some people who weren't covered by an employer's group policy simply couldn't get insurance for any amount of money.
Now, yes insurance is expensive, but anyone can get it for about 2x what most people who get healthcare as a benefit are paying into an employer's health care plan.
