ABSTRACT
In any comparison between the respective advantages and drawbacks of an obligation to insure and an obligatory insurance system, relief from employer liability, and its ensuing pacificatory effect in the enterprise when an accident occurs, is an important factor. The statutory accident insurance scheme puts to good use its contacts with the enterprise where an accident occurs and takes appropriate steps to safeguard the victim's job providing specialist personnel to give qualified advice. Private insurance companies agree with those they insure on obligations and duties which in concrete individual cases have positive and preventive effects. In Germany a discussion which has been going on since 1998 on whether employment accident insurance should be privatized has come to an end. Thus, if accident insurance were privatized, prevention would in practice become the responsibility of the state alone. Negotiations on charges with individual service providers can be oriented towards both quality safeguarding and cost reduction.
