Like I said, you can get private health insurance in both the Netherlands and Germany. Basic service is mandated by law, and will be the same across all provide

Like I said, you can get private health insurance in both the Netherlands and Germany. Basic service is mandated by law, and will be the same across all providers, but you can get any additional insurance you want. I do agree that it makes more sense to have basic healthcare covered by a single national government program, rather than mandating basic coverage and allowing private insurance companies to "compete" by offering the same mandatory coverage as each other. If that's specifically what you're referring to by "useless added bureaucracy", then I agree.