Originally Posted by
velotel
The comment about restricted choice in Europe is pretty much off the wall. In fact my brother whose wife is also french moved to France from California from a house they loved to one they don't love nearly as much, from a climate that was all they ever wanted to one that isn't at all what they really want, all because of the health care advantages here.
It appears from my readings that the French system is on of the best in the world for both coverage and results. That makes it unique among the European systems. It's far better than the UK or Canadian system and far better than that of the US.
The US system costs something like 2 to 3 times per capita than the French system, yet something like 1/6 of the US population has no coverage and likely another 20% has poor coverage. Something like a third of the cost of the US system is overhead. When you consider the medical errors (estimated to kill 100,000/year), the over medication, the spiraling costs, the US system is broken.
When we were vacationing in Canada some years back, we would hear on the radio how long these folks had to wait for an MRI. In one mid size city, it was up to a year. Neither the Canadian nor the Brit system is the answer, but the French System might be far better than what we have now. I believe that costs are reasonably contained, but the doctors do apparently make less.
Al