Health Care

babyluvbutton239 asked:


I was reading on Wikipedia that France has the best health care system and that it is almost entirely free for people affected by chronic diseases such as cancers, AIDS or Cystic Fibrosis.
If this is true in France, why does this seem to be an impossibility in America?

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5 Responses to “How come health care in France is basically free?”

1. raudru83 Says:
   October 7th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

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   Because France has much higher taxes. Say you pay 10,000 a year in taxes here, you would be paying almost double that in France

2. luvmykids Says:
   October 8th, 2009 at 12:29 am

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   Because they pay for it. Which means that Joe Smoe who isn’t sick or in need of tremendous health care in paying for somebody who he doesn’t even know by being taxed to death. Plus, the actual healthcare is not great in those countries. Not compared to the US.

3. Dana Says:
   October 10th, 2009 at 1:19 am

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   They have higher taxes in France. Actually, the employer is required to pay 12.8% to healthcare and the employees tax rate went down to 0.75% in 2001. People do also buy supplemental insurance, but at an affordable rate and there are no denials and most of the time if you are employed the employer will pay for supplemental insurance. The doctors and insurance companies, unlike in the U.S. are not motivated by money and cannot jack up their prices because it is all regulated by the govt. In France they help each other out and everyone gets healthcare. Even though they may pay a little more in taxes, they think it is worth it. Also, France does not have long wait times and they were rated to have the best healthcare system by the World Health Organization. I just wrote a paper about this btw.

4. firstam2008 Says:
   October 11th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

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   Nothing is free. THAT is fact. Also unless you want to have a serious illness, the system is not that helpful–also FACT and from their own website!

   The much lauded French system raises some questions as well. From their Embassy site (ambafrance-us.org) they state that 96 percent of the population receives free or 100 percent reimbursed health care. They state the system is part of their Social Security and is funded from worker’s salaries (60 percent), “indirect taxes on alcohol and tobacco and by direct contribution paid by all revenue proportional to income, including retirement pensions and capital revenues.” They state that it appears that health insurance pays less to its doctors in France than in other European countries, but that 80 percent of the public have supplemental health insurance, typically from their employers. If they’re providing so well for the needs of the public, why is there a need for “supplemental” health insurance for the majority of the public and what about the additional cost that imposes? The site states that the poorest have free universal health care, funded by taxes. Long-term illness sufferers are to be reimbursed for their treatments. They do have private clinics, as well as public hospitals, and not-for-profit healthcare. In fact, “private medical care in France is particularly active in treating more than 50% of surgeries and more than 60% of cancer cases.”

   Private insurance, which the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) site said in a 2004 report, was held by 92 percent of the French, helps to cover both vision and dental care which are not well covered under the government system. “The public system is facing chronic deficits and recent cost containment policies have not proved very successful.” The government is interested in having more of the tab picked up by private insurance (Buchmueller & Couffinhall, “Private Health Insurance in France,” 2004, oecd.org).

   AND
   “In France, the supply of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave—when many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity—15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs aren’t available. And so on.”

   If you’re interested in something Constitutional that would work:
   QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.
   That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare “donut holes” the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low “caps” on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).
   Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com
   Cassandra Nathan’s Save America, Save the World

5. wwschulerinc@sbcglobal.net Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 10:14 pm

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   Because we have evil insurance companies here. You should watch Sicko.