January 23, 2004

Health Care in Old Europe

From BBC World News comes a cautionary tale of the Health Care system in France -- it is available for everyone but the money is running out... bq. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have taken to the streets of Paris to protest against government plans to cut back on a health service which has a projected overspend this year of eight billion pounds. Note - this is about $14 Million US Dollars (UPDATE: Rob over at SemiSkimmed brought to my attention that the number is $14 Billion, not $14 Million - his comment "A sum best said while raising the little finger to the corner of the mouth in Dr Evil style") bq. The other day, an American friend, recently returned to live again in Paris, e-mailed from her sick bed. bq. "This is why I like France," she wrote. "I have bronchitis and the doctor has just been to see me in my own home. bq. "He stayed long enough to examine me thoroughly and carefully, prescribe some drugs, drink two vodkas, eat pistachios by the fistful, and then chat about his days as a young doctor on an ashram in India. And all paid for by the state!" bq. The abundance and generosity of its health service has turned France into a nation of hypochondriacs. bq. It consumes far more drugs than any other nation in Europe, and they are almost always the expensive patented kind rather than the cheaper generic alternatives. bq. French pharmacists have never had it so good. And now they fear their government is going to ruin it. bq. On Thursday, the government is publishing a report called Hospital 2007. bq. "You know what that is about do you not?" one well known accident and emergency specialist said. bq. "Anything marked 2007 is about the next presidential election and Jacques Chirac. Our health system is being sacrificed to political dogma." And more: bq. In France you can go straight to a specialist without being referred to a general practitioner first. bq. If the specialist conducts expensive tests and then says there is nothing wrong with you that a good night's sleep will not cure, you can go to another specialist who will conduct the same tests a second time without knowing that you have already had them. bq. It is not unusual for people to go for a third, fourth or fifth opinion until they find a specialist who will give them some pills. And more: bq. The GPs have proposed the introduction of a single internet dossier for each patient, so that the GP can call it up and see whether the patient has already been treated. But it will take years to introduce, he said, and the patients will not like it. And more: bq. It is the World Health Organisation (WHO) that ranks the French system as the best in the world. And more: bq. But there is a problem. Eight billion pounds worth of problem. That is this year's projected overspend on health alone. bq. The reason is clear and will have to be confronted in the end. It is demographic. bq. People are living longer, calling on health resources more frequently, and for longer, and all the while a smaller and smaller proportion of the actual population is working and paying taxes to fund it. bq. The last time a French government tried to confront this reality - in 1995 - and introduce structural reforms, there was a popular explosion. Posted by DaveH at January 23, 2004 10:06 PM