Striking German Doctors Shed Light on System Ills

Deutsche Welle reports:

Some 20,000 doctors at German state-run hospitals lay down their stethoscopes this week demanding better pay and work conditions. Can the country afford to pay its doctors more -- and can it afford not to?

On Wednesday afternoon, several dozen physicians stood outside the University Hospital of Cologne, cleaning the windows of stopped cars. The action was meant to show that they are treated more like menial labor than highly trained professionals.



Doctors across Germany went on strike after the state tariff association, which represents university hospital employers, sought to increase the official working week to 42 hours from 38.5. But the physicians' union, the Marburger Bund, argued this would mean a pay decrease in real terms. They demanded a 30 percent wage increase in turn.

You mean socialist health care will not always be there when you need it? For those who advocate this sort of system for the United States,do really think there will not be strikes like New York City's transit workers? Big government means you might not get medical care.