For a number of months in Germany....'stations' existed (in every city, town and village) where a commercial operation opened up....provided 'free' Covid testing, and charged the government 18 Euro per test accomplished.
Who decided the 18 Euro fee? Well...back in the summer of 2020, this amount was generally agreed upon, and related to the average cost of quickie-tests (at that time), around six Euro for the test kit, and twelve Euro for the personnel/operating cost.
Overpriced? Well....if you walk into a grocery operation today, the quickie test sits at the door in a basket, and typically runs about 2.99 Euro, which you could do yourself. My humble belief is that when the government ends it's free deal....half of the test centers will go away, and from the remaining ones....their pricing will be around 9.99 Euro.
Were the tests considered reliable? A university group in Hamburg did the PCR tests against everyone considered positive from the quickie-tests....around one-third of the tests were false positive.
Are the test kits at the grocery....the same as in the test-center? Yes....no difference.
The odds that the quickie free tests will come back in by the end of the year? I'd give it better than a 75-percent chance of occurring. I doubt if the government will be stupid enough to pay the 18 Euro again though.
So I'll end this essay with this comment. Back in March/April of 2020....if you called your German doctor and wanted him to test you (under the health insurance business).....the doctor would ask several questions on symptoms. You needed to give him or the nurse some evidence....otherwise, they said no. For six months, the doctors in Germany stood in the path of free tests and prevented this from getting crazy. Presently, I think the free tests deal is stupid.....if you present no symptoms.
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