French Health Care? Faced With a Health System that Has Become Practically Incomprehensible, Individuals Feel Helpless

While the French health care system, among many others, continues to be praised to the heavens by America's élites, both for what it does, medically-wise, and for its alleged low costs, Le Monde publishes a report on the top part of its front page called What Is the True Cost of Health in France? (Quel est le coût réel de la santé en France?).

In other words, how can America's élites praise the French health system (based, supposedly, on reports from France) if the truth turns out to be that the French themselves do not know the cost (or the true cost) of health in their own country?!

Confronted with a health system that has become practically incomprehensible over the years, individuals feel helpless, especially when it comes to trying to figure out what the various health rates correspond to

writes Laetitia Clavreul in Le Monde. Incidentally (dentally — no pun intended), you know about the rumor about Frenchmen's allegedly nasty teeth? Well, it turns out that at least part of that can be explained by the fact that France's optimal, wonderful, heavenly, glorieux health system does not do much to cover dental (as well as optical) care.

Combien rembourse l'assurance-maladie pour tel acte médical ou tel type de consultation ? A quoi correspond ce forfait de 1 euro qui apparaît sur les relevés de remboursements ? Quels frais sont pris en charge par les mutuelles ?...

Confrontés à un système de soins devenu quasi incompréhensible au fil des années, les particuliers se disent souvent désarmés, notamment quand il s'agit de savoir à quoi correspondent les tarifs de santé. Avec la création, au 1^er janvier, d'une nouvelle vignette de remboursement de médicaments, qui sera orange cette fois, et la hausse annoncée des cotisations des mutuelles de 5 %, la tâche ne devrait pas leur être simplifiée en 2010.

"Comprendre les tarifs de santé est désormais aussi complexe que comprendre sa facture de téléphone", observe Christian Saout, le président du Collectif interassociatif sur la santé (CISS), qui représente les patients. M. Saout regrette que, contrairement aux télécommunications, il n'existe pas dans le secteur de la santé d'agence de régulation.

Related:

• The French healthcare system, even if taken at its best, is like an expensive jewel on a beggar’s neck by Bojidar Marinov

• What the American enamored with French health care doesn’t realize is that the French, too, would love to have such a perfect health system by Guy Sorman

• Call it the grass-is-greener syndrome: the French have their own problems that show there's no such thing as a free lunch — or a free doctor's visit by Investor's Business Daily