Freshly ’round from the fresh and round faces of Mancunian physiotherapists with their fresh, round northern accents and their fresh, round-eyed unspoiled children, I dive into the jaded atmosphere of London to pick up my daughter and wing off to France.
In the midst of America’s discussion on health care, it was jarring to hear how discouraged these physios were / are with British National Health System. I have said ‘Bring it on’ when nay-sayers bring up the specter of ‘socialized’ medicine as if this were an automatic disqualification – and I do think we need something similar to cover the poor and replace our ridiculously expensive and profit-driven system. But these people were complaining about exactly the bureaucratic inefficiency and niggling pettiness in the NHS that the town-hallers are warning us against.
Britain is not the best poster child for a national health system. You’ll likely get much better reports in France from physios, doctors, patients, even non-citizens such as American expats. France is ranked by the World Health Organization as having the best health care in the world.
The UK is ranked 18th; the US is 37th, between Costa Rica and Slovenia. The interesting thing about the list is that the top systems are all nationalized insurance systems like Medicare, not nationalized health care like the UK. In Britain the docs work for the NHS; France the docs work for themselves, but are paid by the government. Both Costa Rica and Slovenia do it the English way, and wind up no better than we do in terms of outcomes.
In France health care is less expensive by more than half through taxes than our health care is through insurance. Infant and mother mortality and morbidity is lower; life expectancy is longer, surgical success rates are higher and medical errors are lower. The catch is that one of the ways that costs are contained is that doctors make less money. This is acceptable to them because their education is free. Rather than graduating with the six figure debt that propels US docs into the insurance reimbursement machine; they graduate debt free and ready to help.
Enjoy France!