France's health care system

Universal health care (99% coverage). Most of the French are satisfied. System is supported by an employer payroll tax of 12.5%. Employees pay a small percentage (0.75%) Doctor to patient ratio is 1 in 294 (vs. 1 in 416 in US). French health care costs 11% of GDP, second only to the US (16% of GDP) due to rising out of pocket costs. There is some rationing of care with gatekeepers.

August 07, 2009 broadcast.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• France's
• health
• care
• system
• rationing
• of
• with
• gatekeepers
• Doctor
• to
• patient
• ratio
• Universal

[dd8721]

France has probably the best run healthcare system. Americans shouldn't go criticising other nations when they let 50 million of their own citizens to die. Fucking hypocrites.

[kikoun86]

@avilameon On the other hand, I'm glad that in France we can enjoy this freedom of not worying about potential health problems.I just broke my achilles tendon six weeks ago, I never thought a milisecond about costs or whatever. You just swip your "Carte vitale" and everything is paid for automatically.For drugs : you pay and you get a total refund 2 weeks later if you suscribed to a complementary private program, if not, you get a 40-70% refund.Great,but not perfect,that was my point.

[Snackay]

Seeing a general practitioner in France, meaning a general doctor, costs about $25-$30. All but several dollars you can get back also.

[Birouk2010]

@dd8721Nos dirigeants libéraux détruisent notre édification "Socialiste" que François Mitterrand, le conseil de la Résistance et le général de gaule avaient mis en place. Ils privatisent et dérégulent au point ou plus de 40% de la population ne cherche plus à ce soigner si nécessaire, car devenu trop chère. Notre pays est tirailler entre Marxistes, Social-démocrate, libéraux, conservateurs, fascistes et royalistes sur les mesures à prendre, dans 2 mois une élection présidentielle.

[garith21]

@DandAinTac

Japan and Taiwan's systems aren't bad by any means, but yeah, as far as I've ever been able to tell on average ours is the worst care per dollar out of all the industrialized nations and we don't even cover everyone. That's not even including all the social and economic costs that come with having poor or no coverage. Even up to 25 million people who are insured aren't properly covered.

[DandAinTac]

@FIXWCBCANADA I wouldn't form an opinion based on just one email. We should study and find out what works. There are many MEASUREMENTS we can look at--healthy life span, cost, doctors per patient, wait times, infant mortality, and so on. Maybe Germany's system isn't so great. I'll bet it's better and cheaper than ours is though. But maybe we can do better than that.

[FIXWCBCANADA]

@DandAinTac ,,,, i just received an email from germany and was told their health system is not very good, could it be that the controlled media, has fed us another line of BS;

[DandAinTac]

The US should study the health care systems in other countries--France, Sweden, Germany, and adopt the best practices for this country. Where did we ever get the idea that we're better than everyone, and have nothing to learn from anyone, just because we have the most powerful military? Health care outcomes can be measured--let's figure out what works best and adopt it.

[dagda825]

@themightyjoseph It certainly is. I would be interested to see a study made on the cost of US health if it were made non-profit. The multi billions made on prescription drugs alone would help the uninsured get the care they need. I often feel like I'm living Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. Only it's much worse.

[themightyjoseph]

@dagda825 Yes, except the difference between the US and France is the fact that French healthcare is THE BEST compared to US which is 3rd worst in the developed world at no 37.

[dagda825]

@themightyjoseph The US also has 4.7 times the population. Grow France's population to our size and what would the cost be? Taking a simplistic approach to the problem: if their population was 300 million vs. 64 (in round numbers) and everything else was exactly the same, they'd be spending around 1.5 trillion. Not very far behind the US really. I always wondered what cost would be if healthcare was a not-for-profit venture.