Red Tape Hot Box on A more welcome invasion

The German phrase Drang nach Osten never meant anything good for the Poles, as it symbolized our western neighbor's thrustruch w kierunku to the east in search for Lebensraum (living space).

However, this infamous phrase may actually be getting a new meaning, one that will be more welcome in Poland than back in Germany.

For years now, because of the difference in prices of various services in the two countries, many Germans from border areas have done their shopping in Poland, and visited Polish hairdressers, beauty salons, and dentists, as well as getting their cars fixed on this side of the border, where services are much cheaper and, surprisingly, turned out to be of the same quality as in the Bundesrepublik. Now, after Poland's accessionwstąpienie to the EU, indicesindex: wskaźnik suggest this tendency is likely to increase - to the benefit of our entrepreneursenterpreneur: przedsiębiorca. And Polish doctors (and especially dentists) are very likely to be the biggest winners.

A German citizen can now freely go to a dentist in Poland and pay a few hundred złotys for a visit compared to a few hundred euros back home. Saving a decentprzyzwoita amount of money is one advantage of going to Poland for treatment, but what if you got paid for doing so? The German health insurance system refunds part of the treatment at German prices, regardless of where it actually took place. Up until the present, it wasn't much of a problem, as the difference in health service prices in Germany and its western and southern neighbors aren't that big. But now, it is possible for a client to get a refund higher than the price paid for the service in Poland! That's quite an incentivebodziec motywacyjny, zachęta to go east. So is the much lower CIT rate, for which we have been much criticized by some senior German politicians.

A few years ago, everyone expected hordes of Poles to pour into Germany in search of work. Now, ironically, we could witness an influx of German investors to this country. And such Drang nach Osten will be most welcome here.

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