Sometimes the government does it better

People who say corporations always do it better than the government have never dealt with the French health care system.

My girl friend recently had to go to the doctor. Here are the total costs/insurance pays in Euros.1 Euro = US$1.21

Doctor’s visit 20/16
Blood work 48/38.40 (this is a complete blood work up)
X-Ray 30/24
Medicine 20/80 pain killer one month, one month cholesterol medicine, gel,calcium
Therapy 400/300 5x a week, 1 hour each for 4 weeks

There was no waiting. There are two ways to pay.

Either you pay everything to your supplier and they swipe your health insurance card. The next day the insurance payment is in your bank account. Or when they swipe your card through the machine you merely pay the difference between the insurance and the total cost. In that case the pharmacy is paid within 48 hours through.

Needless to say such automation reduces a lot of the administration costs. Paperwork is kept to a minimum although there has only been one brown and white form for medical reporting for years. Everyone has healthcare that is affordable.

There are problems. Doctors feel underpaid. People tend to use doctors and want medicine more than necessary. However, one never, ever, ever, ever has to worry they won’t be able to be taken care of if they are ill.

No wonder the World Health Organization considers it the best system in the world.