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The health care I want is in France


  3. CarolynGillis
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MANY advocates of a universal healthcare system in the United States look to Canada for their model. While the Canadian healthcare system has much to recommend it, there's another model that has been too long neglected. That is the healthcare system in France.

Although the French system faces many challenges, the World Health Organization rated it the best in the world in 2001 because of its universal coverage, responsive healthcare providers, patient and provider freedoms, and the health and longevity of the country's population. The United States ranked 37.

The French system is also not inexpensive. At $3,500 per capita it is one of the most costly in Europe, yet that is still far less than the $6,100 per person in the United States.
CarolynGillis

21 responses // The health care I want is in France

  • You can always move there...
    JohnA
  • JohnA.
    You are right I do have the option of moving to France. I prefer not to abandon my friends and family in the USA.

    Most of the top Health Centers in th USA are getting on board with Integrative (Preventive or Holistic) Health.

    I would rather work with our system to improve our conditions as difficult as that seems at the time.
    I am aware that MD's in the USA are in a difficult situation. They have been trained by schools who are funded by Pharmaceutical Industries. They have only a few hours of training in nutrition. This problem can be remedied by opening their often tightly closed minds and accepting Prevention as a new tool as other countries do. There is a great resource developed by Dr Andrew Weil called Integrative Medicine that helps doctors in this training.
    My doctor in Falmouth,Maine is Dr Craig Schneider and has training at Harvard Columbia and has this additionally training http://www.mmc.org/mmc_body.cfm?id=1354
    This research based health care is the way of the future and we all need to be on this track.
    http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/PAG00110
    CarolynGillis
  • Socialist Healthcare? Yet another thing contradicting the fruits of the Free Market.

    -----

    Edit: That was sarcasm, it might have been hard to understand through the internet. As a Medical Student in London I can say there are plenty of problems wrong with the current universal health care system, but thats still miles ahead of whatever privatized non-sense it could've been.
    beefcurry
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4L6-0WRfSA
    This country beats France by several furlongs!
    Vierotchka
  • I studied the french system a few years ago. In terms of healthcare and especially compared to the US model, France takes considerable care of its people.
    nkeg87
  • Please take a look at the health care benefits that our honorable Senators and Congressmen receive for life after only serving 1 term and how much it costs them.

    WIth benefits like those who needs to share.....

    Especially if you are an elected representative of these United States
    geewiz
  • Beefcurry.
    I am sure that you have not watched the movie Sicko. If you do you will see the benefits of this system clearly, hether you call it Socialist Health or anything else..
    Michael Moore, the fat extremest American hater, shows us how our own US Socialist systems are working fine:
    The US Socialist Library System
    The US Socialist Mail System
    The US Socialist Fire Department
    The US Socialist Education System
    Yes they are all contradicting the fruits of the free market.


    CarolynGillis
  • Though Sicko does make some good points, I prefer to avoid using it as an example because Michael Moore has made films with a loaded political agenda. Better examples can be found within the lower end of the medical communities of corporate hospitals. Both of my parents are in the medical profession (mother is an emergency room nurse and my father is a lab technician) and until recently both of them worked for a corporate hospital run by an insurance company. Boy you can hear some scary stories about how "effective" corporate health care is about treating it's own employees, and hospitals tend to treat their employees slightly better than their standard customers.
    Varex_Sythe
  • Cosmo Plavix - if you are earning an income that allows you to pay for rent, car insurance, food, and utilities, you are generating wealth.... for your employers, and likely much more wealth for them than for yourself.

    Yours is an excellent post.
    Vierotchka
  • interesting. i thought i would never say this but...man we should be more like the French.
    currentkid
  • This is bullshi*. I have lived in France and Canada; three years each. THe health care systems SUCK in both these countries.

    Sorry Michael Moore.

    In France, the doctors give you five medicines for a cold:
    1) to fight the cold
    2) to fight the limp the cold medicine gives you
    3) to fight the fever the limp medicine gives you
    4) to fight the fever the limp medicine gave you
    5) to fight the stomach pains from the fever

    As for Canada; you need to wait sometimes for WEEKS sometimes just to get a simple test.

    oneparkave
  • I found the testimonies of the folks in Moore's movie to be believable, uncoerced, sort of- how should I say?... spontaneous. Healthcare here stinks. My experiences, and the experiences of my loved ones have been rotten. Not to mention that if one has no insurance, and little money, there are no options besides HUGE bills and bad credit!
    Swizzle2
  • Cuba looked nice too!
    Swizzle2
  • Watching sickO I was shocked by the fact that the government sends a nanny to new mothers, for free!

    I'd rather pay more taxes to the government, than to some stray company.

    As for the Canadian system, I think it suits my family very well. And its better than nothing.
    ipodrulz
  • I liked the stories and the testimonies of the patients, doctors and insurance company officials. They made the movie worthwhile.

    Then Sicko seem to wander from the point and took on the political agenda that Micheal Moore is critisized for. Trying to get the 9/11 rescue workers treated at Gitmo was just grandstanding and hurt the credibility he had built up in the 1st part.

    The thing is that from what I've seen is that the French actually get what they pay for in taxes with the services provided

    The crazy part is that we allow the government to waste so much of what Americans pay in taxes so that we can't afford what other countries get.
    Argon18
  • I think that if Americans had more Love and Respect for themselves and for others this reality would be much different. The point is that many in the US have not grown from the stage of selfishness yet. Learning how to write, read and speak can help but the final decision still in our hands to be taken.

    Until Americans get; by themselves; to the conclusion that we cannot rip and make a profit from everything, this issue will never ends!

    Ps: By the way Cosmo, Thanks for your sincere comments! That is indeed the reality on many today!
    stopnoise
  • LOL gotcha Beefcurry. It was tongue in cheek..sorry I didn't get it before.
    There are others that are not sarcasm though so I was off guard.
    CarolynGillis
  • Oneparkave - that's ludicrous! Where on earth were you in France? I live a couple of miles from France, I have family in France, their experience is nothing like your fiction, it is just like how Moore showed in Sicko. Est-ce que tu parles le français? Moi je le parle couramment, aussi bien que l'anglais.
    Vierotchka
  • USA is good for the rich that can afford the high price of Health Care. No folks! We can attempt to play this game of comparison but we know we should not! There are many personal encounters with the Medical Profession. Whatever Country or System you are;--- In question of Health Care, please reflect on these words first:
    1. Be honest with ourself and knowledgeable about your illness before talking it to the doctors.
    2. Do not just blind faith drop yourself into it. Get always a second or third opinion.
    3. Analyze your financial options. In USA, if you fall sick and you do not have money, you are as good as a Dead person!

    stopnoise
  • well i'm french and i live in paris.
    Our health insurance is really good, and mean that if you have no money, you're not gonna die.
    Healthcare insurance(we call it "sécurité sociale")will take care of you.
    The only problem with that(and it's the first problem when you get some rights as citizens)is that french people are the people who spend the the more money at the doctor and for medicaments in the world.
    And when the social security was created, our state could do it, cause we had money, and it was easy(in a economic context)to make money.
    So french people, were habit to consom doctors, medicaments...And continue today to act the same way(going to the doctor for nothing for example), but our statment today has no money anymore, so it spend money to help people, but people don't give enough money for the state(cause we have lot of unemployed poeple, no jobs...)
    So today, with our "super stupid"president, sarkozy, things gonna move, and the state begin not taking care about that, so we begin to pay thing we didn't pay for years.
    Every citizens rights are cool, but when people get some rights, they usually use it too much and then, the statement take back our rights.
    Never forget that french population are fighting for healthcare since 1945, and we continue to fight for it.Americans people should have done the same!
    The only thing to understand and accept in this healthcare system is that, if you have money you pay taxes for people who doesn't, so they can be helped.
    But in a capitalism country, it's seems hard uh?
    melpoisson
  • Thanks for your honest report and opinion!
    stopnoise

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