German doctors take to the streets to demonstrate against low salaries and long hours. (courtesy of Marburger Bund)

Universal health insurance is a valuable but little appreciated public service wherever it exists in the world. Does Germany's century of experience with universal health coverage give people in Taiwan cause for optimism or concern?

When I arrived in Germany 20 years ago, what I found hardest to get used to my university's requirement that everyone have health insurance. Without a document proving that you had health insurance, you could not even register. The monthly premium of DM68 (about NT$1200 in those days) was no small sum for an impoverished student like me.

Student health premiums were very reasonable compared to what most Germans had to pay, which was seven or eight times more. When I went abroad after graduating from college I had no experience of any sort of public health and labor insurance system, because in those days Taiwan still had no national health insurance program. I had always been in the best of health, and other than an occasional visit to the dentist, I had almost no contact with medical doctors and hospitals. I therefore considered my insurance payments a complete waste. I resented the fact that my insurance company was subsidizing a complete stranger's healthcare with my money.