The BMEzine Modblog (Body modification website, check this site if you’re 18+ this is pretty hardcore i warned you) posted a news about the german government which may redesign their health system : standard insurance might not cover any healthcare to people with body piercings, tattoo’s or to those who participate in any extreme sport. To be covered, it would be needed to get an extra insurance, which is about 25euros per month. So to be real, its a tax on extreme sport.

Thanks to John Cleghorn for mailling me this info !

Bad news for Bodymod Freaks here in Germany. The government decided to redesign our health system. As a part of these changes so called “risk groups” like extreme sports fans or bodymod addicts have to pay any medical treatment they need by themselves, given the trouble is caused by these activities. No [standard] health insurance will cover any kind of problem you could have after a body piercing or a tattoo, not to speak about heavier mods.

So if you should be so unlucky to need very expensive treatment, a surgery maybe, because something went wrong when you got something pierced, you will have to pay thousands of euros (1 Euro is about 1.20 US Dollars) by yourself. If you can’t pay it you’ve got a serious problem. Because no Doctor will help you then.

And they talk about human rights. Yeah. But only rich people are humans to them. Be grateful you don’t live in a country which is ruled exclusively by money bags.

There is a way to get a health insurance which covers these special risks — but you have to pay 25 Euro (30 US$) extra per month, in addition to your regular health insurance. No matter how much you earn, these 25 will always remain the same. The extra insurance is volontary, but if you don’t have it, it is like I said: No doctor will help you if you get an infection from a piercing or something like that.It would have been a lot better if they offered an insurance you can buy when getting pierced, so a piercing will become more expensive, but you are safe if something goes wrong. Maybe some private insurance company will have this idea some time later, but this will surely take some time.And do-it-yourself piercers, self-modders or people who got an illegal modification done at an underground parlor would be unprotected in this case either.

So currently it looks as if you’ll have to join this extra insurance-fund, paying 25.- extra per moth, if should ever want to get a piercing or try yourself at a BMX offroad bike. All so-called “self-accountable risks” are to be covered in this expensive extra-insurance. If you refuse joining it, you should not risk to do anything dangerous. And a nostril or belly button piercing, as every second girl has it, would be considered dangerous in this context. I don’t know about how they include the standard ear lobe piercings there. 98% of the female population have pierced ears, including many women over 70 years. But as I know German bureaucrats they will make no difference there. Politics and reality are very different things.

So most people, but espeacially the younger ones, will have to pay this extra fee. Everything else would be too risky…

source

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 8:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.