Hospice and Palliative Care‐Related Policy in the United States and Germany in the Context of Recent Governmental Changes

ABSTRACT Population aging is a problem that countries around the globe are facing; it comes with complex healthcare needs. Different countries take different approaches to solving these issues. In the United States, proposed legislation related to hospice and palliative care emerged from a history of hospice fraud and specialty physician shortages. In Germany, similar (albeit enacted) legislation emerged from assisted suicide debates. The pieces of legislation are compared here to understand how the two countries approached the same issue. Several similarities were found; although the countries have different government systems and historical contexts, both pieces of legislation are amendments to other acts and are bi‐partisan/multiparty efforts. Additionally, hospice and palliative care discussions are ongoing in both locales. However, both countries are now experiencing political upheaval and a trend toward the far‐right; this casts uncertainty on the future of hospice and palliative care legislation.