History
The current system has undergone several changes since its foundation in 1945, though the basis of the system remains state planned and operated.
Jean de Kervasdoué, a health economist, believes that French medicine is of great quality and is "the only credible alternative to the Americanization of world medicine." According to Kervasdoué, France's surgeons, clinicians, psychiatrists, and its emergency care system (SAMU) are an example for the world. However, despite this, Kervasdoué criticizes the fact that hospitals must comply with 43 bodies of regulation and the nit-picking bureaucracy that can be found in the system. Kervasdoué believes that the state intervenes too much in regulating the daily functions of French hospitals.
Furthermore, Japan, Sweden, and the Netherlands have health care systems with comparable performance to that of France's, yet spend no more than 8% of their GDP (against France's spending of more than 10% of its GDP).
According to various experts, the battered state of the French social security system's finances is causing the growth of France's health care expenses. To control expenses, these experts recommend a reorganization of access to health care providers, revisions to pertinent laws, a repossession by CNAMTS of the continued development of medicines, and the democratization of budgetary arbitration to counter pressure from the pharmaceutical industry.
Read more about this topic: Health Care In France
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