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• Patrick Lenain

This paper reviews the performance of French health care system from an economic viewpoint. It also provides some policy recommendations. The health system in France is regarded as delivering high quality services, with freedom of choice and generally no waiting lists for treatments. Access to medical services is equal among the population and, unlike in some other countries, people can get the treatments they need irrespective of their social status or work situation. It is therefore not surprising that the French population is relatively satisfied with the health system. As this paper points out, however, this high quality comes at a price: health expenditure in relation to GDP is among the highest in the OECD and risks increasing further in the future in the absence of adequate measures. Past reform efforts, which have shifted the cost to the patient through higher out-of-pocket payments, have proved ineffective and raised equity questions. A new approach is therefore ...

Le présent document examine la performance du système de santé de la France, d’un point de vue économique. Il propose également des recommandations pour les réformes futures. Le système de santé français est considéré comme capable de fournir des services médicaux de qualité, avec une liberté de choix pour les patients et, en règle générale, sans liste d’attente pour les traitements. Les soins de santé sont distribués de façon équitable au sein de la population et, contrairement à d’autres pays, les patients peuvent obtenir des traitements médicaux quelque soit leur statut social ou professionnel. Il n’est donc pas surprenant que les français soient relativement satisfaits de leur système de santé. Néanmoins, comme souligné dans le présent document, la qualité des services médicaux a un prix : les dépenses de santé en relation au PIB sont parmi les plus élevées de l’OCDE et elles risquent de s’accroître davantage à l’avenir en l’absence de mesures adéquates. Dans le passé, les ...

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Paper provided by OECD, Economics Department in its series OECD Economics Department Working Papers with number 269.

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Date of creation: 27 Oct 2000
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Handle: RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:269-en

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Related research

Keywords: France; health; France; santé;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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1. John Yfantopoulos, 2008. "Pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement reforms in Greece," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 87-97, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
2. Benoît Dervaux & Gary D. Ferrier & Hervé Leleu & Vivian Valdmanis, 2004. "Comparing French and US hospital technologies: a directional input distance function approach," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 36(10), pages 1065-1081, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
3. Martine M. Bellanger & Philippe R. Mossé, 2005. "The search for the Holy Grail: combining decentralised planning and contracting mechanisms in the French health care system," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(S1), pages S119-S132. [Downloadable!]

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