I think the term State Health Insurance and its description is misleading. It is true that it is mandatory and regular employers have to be insured under that scheme, however, it is not, as suggested by the info above, run "be the German government". The German government has no monopoly or, like in the UK, provides a homogenous system. The legal framework within which several private companies offer state health insurance services belongs to the government, the rest is all up to the consumer and the companies as in any other free-market economy transaction.
