US vs French Medical Care, My Personal Experience (by Martin Varsavsky at HuffPost)

[marmar]

Martin Varsavsky


03.24.2007
US vs French Medical Care, My Personal Experience (25 comments )

I lived in the States for 18 years, I live in Europe now. I reside in Madrid but today I had a medical emergency while visiting Paris. It was so well taken care of that I would like to write an unusual post in favor of the French Health System. This is clearly a case and not a statistic but I will try to draw some general conclusions comparing the US and French health care experience.

I will limit myself to three key elements of the medical experience, the quality of the medical care, the paperwork and the cost.

The case: I had a 3 cm cut on my chest that urgently required stitches. I was rushed to Hopital St Antoine which is not far from Place des Vosges where we have an apartment (my wife is French and we come frequently to Paris). I was successfully treated and sent home in less than 90 minutes.
....snip....

Now this is my conclusion: America probably has the best doctors in the world, the best medical research in the world and the best hospitals in the world. Once an American medical professional gets to treat you the medical care is great. It is not the treatment itself that is better in France, indeed I am sure that on many occasions it could be worse. But what´s wrong with the American health experience is that it is invaded by a lot of elements that are foreign to medicine. The result is a cost so onerous that the percentage of GDP Americans spend on medicine is much higher than in France but the results are very disappointing. Americans spend the most in the world on medicine but live much shorter lives than most in the developed world. They rank 48th in the world in life expectancy. France is 16th. I am not recommending to any American politician to share my story as praising France seems to be the kiss of death in American politics. Still quietly emulating some of the practices here would make a lot of sense. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-varsavsky/us-vs-french-medical-care_b_44164.html

[Labors of Hercules]

1. Thanks for bringing this to our attention Marmar!

My wife especially thanks you!

[illinoisprogressive]

2. My family lives in France and it always sounded wonderful

My mom's side. Aunts and cousins, ect. My cousin had an emergency baby delivery and they did a fabulous job and to think how it's not going to bankrupt her like here.

[kineneb]

3. yup, US is great place, unless you need healthcare

then you have to spend down everything you have, to (sometimes) get ongoing care. Forget that retirement account, or even eating decently.

Welcome to America: Don't Get Sick.

[sandnsea]

4. French health care is best in the world

A bunch of articles in that regard. They have a public/private system that includes employer paid health insurance.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=france+best+health+care&btnG=Search