Insights in Pediatric Cardiology

The German Healthcare System

19^th International Conference on Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology
May 18-19, 2022 | Webinar

Heinz Nagel

Park West Health Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

ScientificTracks Abstracts: Insights Pediatr Cardiol

Abstract

Germany was the first country in the world that created a national health insurance and social security system in the 1800’s and has continuously improved it since. Many countries have looked at it as a model, including the United States while designing and implementing Obamacare. My PowerPoint presentation will take the audience to Germany and give them an overview of how this system works today, especially how it affects the lives and health of the people in a small village in Bavaria, where I grew up. In a colorful presentation I will talk about the history of our health care system, it’s guiding principle and basic structure, the legal framework, the services it covers, as well as the financing and cost controlling. I will put a special emphasis on how it affected two of my neighbors: Helmut, a farmer and butcher, who developed metabolic syndrome with heart failure and received a cardiac transplant, and Hildegard, who was borderline mentally retarded, had Type 1 diabetes and was living alone. My presentation is spiced up with quite entertaining photos of the village, the residents, and their (often not so healthy) food choices. I will add a special section about health care for children in Germany, that is different from other countries.

Biography

Heinz Nagel has studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg and Luebeck.in Germany. He graduated with an MD in 1988 and with a PhD in History of Medicine at the Medical University of Luebeck in 1989. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, USA, in 1992 and did a fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the same hospital until 1994. Heinz Nagel obtained a Masters of Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore in 1997. Heinz Nagel has extensive experience working and training in the United States and Germany. In Germany he was a researcher at the National Diabetes Center in Duesseldorf (2005- 2006) and he was National Director of Innovation Management for social health insurances in Essen (2006-2009). Social Health Insurances cover 90% of the German population with health insurance. Currently he is serving as Chief of Pediatrics at Park West Medical Center, a community health center in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland, USA.