MP demands fine for parents of drunk teens
Published: 13 Feb 13 11:12 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130213-47947.html
German parents whose children get so drunk they need to be hospitalised should pay a €100 fine to cover costs and remind them they are responsible for their offspring, a parliamentary health expert said on Wednesday.
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Because unnecessary staff and money were needed to treat drunk patients, parents should be made to pay a fine of €100 directly to their health insurer to cover the costs and, Spahn suggested, to remind them that they are responsible for their children's behaviour.
In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) alone, the number of German youths aged between 10 and 19 who have to be hospitalised for excess alcohol consumption is rising. In 2011 the figure stood at 6,548 which, statutory health insurer DAK said, was an increase of 4.3 percent since 2003.
On average, 325 out of each 100,000 young people in Germany drink themselves into the hospital each year, the Rheinische Post reported.
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Your comments about this article:
Try going to an US hospital, or even worse, be driven there by an ambulance. See how far 100 bucks will go to cover the costs.
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I am inclined to agree with @ kbrauneis on this.
Please don't hold the U.K. up as a example on any subject relating to alcohol whether it is price or opening hours.
I think it is a good idea to let teenagers buy beer at 16 and restrict the hard stuff till 18.
I have been told that now days (don't know from personal experience) that the medical staff at tent parties,shooting fest etc. will now take you into hospital when you have been sick ,which is far from sinking into a coma .
I don't know the answer to this problem but pricing alone just will not work.
I would make a personal guess....out of this village of 3k residents....there were a dozen teenagers with drinking problems, and at least five or six really needed serious rehab....before they were even eighteen. My chief blame is parents just hand the kid fifty Euro a week, and never ask where it goes.
With a possibility of profit because many of those who deliver the teenagers to the hospital are volunteers a fine of €1000 would be a incentive to pull in more.
Plus when did it become o.k. for the parents to be responsible for children over say 16 ,if the law says they are old enough to buy beer then are they old enough to act responsible with it? ,(I was working full time at 16) younger than that then yes parents should have responsibility for some actions but not all ,remember children have murdered children before what would you do then?
Try going to an US hospital, or even worse, be driven there by an ambulance. See how far 100 bucks will go to cover the costs....
Two years ago whist on holiday in the US, I had to be treated by a doctor. As a visitor, my credit card was gladly accepted. The bill to see a doctor and a nurse, the ailment became the least of my worries. However, it was more than four times what I later worked out to be the holiday health insurance I had paid and never used over the last 20 years. I can never understand people who skip health insurance for the holiday time.............and back on topic....
In principle, this is not a bad idea. However, the parents that can afford it will not care and those who cannot will just end up with larger fines they still cannot pay AND, the kicker will be.....German bureaucracy will most probably dictate that a parent is responsible for a "child" if they are under 21 or so regardless that they are legally and adult and self responsible at the age of 18. Or I would not put it past them to say if your child is still in full time education and that will push the limit up to about 45 $$$$$$$$, sorry €€€€€€€...................lol