An article in the Wall Street Journal dissects the moves made by President Sarkozy to mold the crumbling French health care system into one that resembles the U.S. healthcare model.
While France struggles with a broken universal healthcare model, Democrats in the House and Senate want to reform US healthcare to look more like the moribund French version.
The article contained a time line of budgetary actions since the inception of a universal health care system in France. Note the number of times taxes were raised and services curtailed – by studying the past, we can see the future of Obamacare – and it ain’t pretty.
Time line below the fold:
Tilting the Balance
Since France began building up its universal health-care system, in 1945, successive governments have been faced with the challenge of balancing the national health insurance budget without going back on the original promise of taking good care of the entire population. For the past three decades, small reductions in health care coverage and incremental increases in health-care taxes have been the main recipe.
1976 — Coverage of ambulance costs is reduced.
1977 — Coverage of some medications is reduced. Some hospital beds are closed.
1982 — Patients must pay a “moderating fee” of 20 francs (3 euros) out of pocket when they are hospitalized.
1985 — Coverage of some paramedical procedures is reduced.
1986 — Increase in health-care payroll taxes.
1987 — Letters sent to the national health insurance must be stamped.
1988 — Creation of a special tax on medication advertising to help fund health care.
1990 — Introduction of the CSG, a new tax levied on all types of income to help fund health care.
1991 — Increase in health-care taxes levied on payroll.
1993 — Increase in CSG rate. Coverage of doctor consultation is reduced.
1996 — Increase in health-care taxes. A new health-care tax is levied on private health-care plans.
1999 — New tax levied on drug makers when their revenue exceeds a pre-defined level.
2000 — Doctors are required to explain to the national health insurance why they granted a worker sick leave.
2003 — The “moderating fee,” which was increased over time, is raised to 15 euros.
2004 — Patients must register with a “preferred” general practitioner who will reroute them toward specialists when necessary, or face lower reimbursement for care.
2005 — The national health insurance deducts 1 euro off doctor consultation fees before it starts calculating how much it must reimburse patients.
2008 — The national health insurance deducts 50 cents off every pack of medicine before it starts calculating how much it must reimburse patients.
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France spends about 50% of what the USA does per person. I guess what you mean is they want to double their health costs to reach the level of the USA ???http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-that-spend-most-on-healthcare.html
@John ryan:
As if the French have a system even remotely worthy of emulating:
JR, every time you post you only hurt your cause. So much for liberals being intelligent.
I found this online this morning: more tools to help us identify the mob members among us:
Meet the Mob
Funny!
Can we add France to the list of failed Universal Healthcare schemes? Massachusetts, Hawaii and now France.
Why don’t these liberals go and live in these wonderful European countries if they admire them so much and leave our system alone? It must suck to live in a country you hate.
Can I just LMAO in front of such biased, delusional and ludicrous blog entry?
The french have the healthcare system on top of every relevant charts and surveys, and they pay less than us. Time to go out of your ideological cave and inhale a bit of reality, i.e. unless you are simply dishonest intellectually (no doubt), or are paid to lobby for the only broken system here: the US one.
A leftist refugee from reality telling anyone to face reality? My irony meter just exploded.
@Sensi:
Snicker.
I love it when the Moby posters dash in and fling their poo just looking to see what might stick.
The French system is BROKEN.
Patients are receiving sub-standard care.
Hospitals are being closed.
Yes, they spend less. The results of that lower level of spending are plainly evident.
Thanks for stopping by.
By the way, nice shoes.