The French healthcare system

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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Shortly after we moved to Paris, my son, Luke, cut his lip in a fall at school. I rushed him to the emergency room of a suburban Paris hospital, where a nurse asked my name and address and a doctor quickly stitched up his cut. When I tried to pay, the cashier asked me to call the following week because the "computer is slow." A bill eventually arrived in the mail for the equivalent of $60.

The same week I took Luke to have his stitches removed at a clinic where a doctor spent nearly an hour with him first softening a scab on the cut. This time, the clerk was apologetic as she handed me the bill, explaining she was sure my American health insurance would reimburse some of the cost. The total bill: $7.50.

As presidential candidates hammer out proposals to deal with the increasing millions of uninsured Americans, I know which health plan I'll choose: the French one.

The World Health Organization has named the French health care system the best in the world. (The U.S. ranked 37th). It's physician-rich, boasting one doctor for approximately every 430 people, compared with a doctor for every 1,230 residents in the U.S. (and French docs tend to charge significantly less). The average life expectancy is two years longer than the U.S. And while the system is one of the most expensive in the world, costing $3,500 per person, it's far less than the $6,100 spend per capita in the U.S.
I've had a unique opportunity to see both systems up close and personal: I had breast cancer in California nine years ago and a recurrence in Paris this year. I received excellent care in both places, though looking back now my California oncologist's office was a bit of a meat market — always packed with patients, from the seemingly not-so-sick to some a step from the grave — a time-consuming disadvantage of living in a much larger country with a lower doctor-to-patient ratio.

My French doctors and nurses have been sensitive, skillful, caring — and not so harried.

But the biggest difference has been money.

The Health Care System I Want Is in France - ABC News
 
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It's not merely a coincidence that the right has ignored the French model of universal healthcare.

They have ignored it because the French system is better than ours. It is a great model for everyone.

I like the fact that the French medical schools are free, so the French have more doctors per capita than we do.
 
The French are also leading in medicine and science at this time.


Sweden has a good system as well.
 
The World Health Organization has named the French health care system the best in the world]

A Reminder to the zombified :

President Reagan was in his seventies when his pulmonary artery was torn by a would be assassin was taken to the hospital and survived;

The French SAMU Team fucked up royally and Princess Diana paid the consequences. Diana's left pulmonary vein had ruptured but it took the French Socialized hellcare 1 hour and 45 minutes to transfer the Princess from the crash site to a hospital four miles away.


.
 
The World Health Organization has named the French health care system the best in the world]

A Reminder to the zombified :

President Reagan was in his seventies when his pulmonary artery was torn by a would be assassin was taken to the hospital and survived;

The French SAMU Team fucked up royally and Princess Diana paid the consequences. Diana's left pulmonary vein had ruptured but it took the French Socialized hellcare 1 hour and 45 minutes to transfer the Princess from the crash site to a hospital four miles away.


.


These two incidents are completely different. Doesn't even pass the laff test.
 
The World Health Organization has named the French health care system the best in the world]

A Reminder to the zombified :

President Reagan was in his seventies when his pulmonary artery was torn by a would be assassin was taken to the hospital and survived;

The French SAMU Team fucked up royally and Princess Diana paid the consequences. Diana's left pulmonary vein had ruptured but it took the French Socialized hellcare 1 hour and 45 minutes to transfer the Princess from the crash site to a hospital four miles away.


.


These two incidents are completely different. Doesn't even pass the laff test.

Because..............


.
 
There are many benefits of French healthcare systems. But that system also has it's flaws.

About 25% of French national income goes to their social security that also covers healthcare. System is in constant deficit and result in additional annual levy in order to keep it running, while is covering 83% of population.

We can't have French model for the following reasons:

*French government is afraid of the French people, US government is not afraid of anyone, especially of the American people
*French government is not spending social security revenue on anything but social security (healthcare included), US social security and other government run programs are broke
*French doctor earnings are controlled by the government (up to $100K), US doctor earnings are limited only by their expertise (better doctor you are, more you earn), for example, French doctor earn two times more then their national average, while US doctor earn five times more then US nat'l average
 
Ame®icano;1498498 said:
There are many benefits of French healthcare systems. But that system also has it's flaws.

About 25% of French national income goes to their social security that also covers healthcare. System is in constant deficit and result in additional annual levy in order to keep it running, while is covering 83% of population.

We can't have French model for the following reasons:

*French government is afraid of the French people, US government is not afraid of anyone, especially of the American people
*French government is not spending social security revenue on anything but social security (healthcare included), US social security and other government run programs are broke
*French doctor earnings are controlled by the government (up to $100K), US doctor earnings are limited only by their expertise (better doctor you are, more you earn), for example, French doctor earn two times more then their national average, while US doctor earn five times more then US nat'l average

Almost everything in your post is false.

We can do whatever we want to do, so stop whinning.

French doctors make less because there are more of them. Supply and demand.

The reason there are more of them is that medical schools are free in France.

Healthcare costs are also cheaper there because they limit doctor liability.

And social security is not broke, although the Republicans would like to be, so they could give all the money to their buddies on Wall Street.
 
Ame®icano;1498498 said:
There are many benefits of French healthcare systems. But that system also has it's flaws.

About 25% of French national income goes to their social security that also covers healthcare. System is in constant deficit and result in additional annual levy in order to keep it running, while is covering 83% of population.

We can't have French model for the following reasons:

*French government is afraid of the French people, US government is not afraid of anyone, especially of the American people
*French government is not spending social security revenue on anything but social security (healthcare included), US social security and other government run programs are broke
*French doctor earnings are controlled by the government (up to $100K), US doctor earnings are limited only by their expertise (better doctor you are, more you earn), for example, French doctor earn two times more then their national average, while US doctor earn five times more then US nat'l average
Thomas Jefferson would disagree about the government not being afraid.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
 
Ame®icano;1498498 said:
There are many benefits of French healthcare systems. But that system also has it's flaws.

About 25% of French national income goes to their social security that also covers healthcare. System is in constant deficit and result in additional annual levy in order to keep it running, while is covering 83% of population.

We can't have French model for the following reasons:

*French government is afraid of the French people, US government is not afraid of anyone, especially of the American people
*French government is not spending social security revenue on anything but social security (healthcare included), US social security and other government run programs are broke
*French doctor earnings are controlled by the government (up to $100K), US doctor earnings are limited only by their expertise (better doctor you are, more you earn), for example, French doctor earn two times more then their national average, while US doctor earn five times more then US nat'l average

Almost everything in your post is false.

We can do whatever we want to do, so stop whinning.

French doctors make less because there are more of them. Supply and demand.

The reason there are more of them is that medical schools are free in France.

Healthcare costs are also cheaper there because they limit doctor liability.

And social security is not broke, although the Republicans would like to be, so they could give all the money to their buddies on Wall Street.

What part is false, exactly?
 
Health-Care “Reformers” Duck the Hard Questions

by Sheldon Richman, September 4, 2009


The most outrageous claim that Obama’s supporters make is that all opponents of “reform” are satisfied with the status quo. That’s nonsense. The strongest critics of Obama-ism are those who argue that the current system is objectionable precisely because it is a government-business cartel built on anti-competitive regulation, rigged tax laws, licensing, patents, and other privileges. While the “reformers” accept this status quo, proposing only marginal adjustments, the economist-critics demonstrate that free-market competition — the separation of medicine and state — is the only way to lower costs and improve service while protecting liberty and privacy.

When will Obama’s supporters stop ducking the tough arguments?
 

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