While the US continues to debate the benefits and cost of a universal health care, France has had a long history of providing health benefits for all its citizens. For those opponents of this model, you may wish to know that since 2001, The World Health Organization recognizes France’s as the best in the world. WHO gives the US 37th overall.
Costing an average of $3500 per capita, while costly for a French person (whose salaries are lower than that of the average American), what is given in return is immeasurable. One thing that differs greatly is that most doctors’ offices in France employ only medical staff. This means while offices in the US have a non-medical to medical staff ratio of nearly 1:1, this is not the case in France.
As such, after the nurse takes all your vital statistics and you’ve seen a doctor, you’re free to leave as you arrived. Although you might miss it, there will be no arguing about your co-pay, what your insurance will or won’t cover and you needn’t spend endless nights worrying about whether you can afford to see a doctor for a potentially serious illness.
And again, although you might think it unusual, you are not required to get a pre-authorization for a surgical procedure. There are no waiting lists, forms to fill out for justification, which means, yet another worry is eliminated from your mind.
If you are considering living in France for period greater than a year, whether to work or as a student, you too may buy into the system. It’s far less costly to insure you, rather than exclude you than for you to become a burden on the system, which is far costlier in the end.
Indeed doctors and insurance company CEOs don’t draw nearly the same salaries as do their counterparts in the US. While this might be dismaying for any doctor in the US who might consider practicing medicine in France, it is difficult not to see how both humane and efficient the health care system in France is.
