The French healthcare system is best described as the synergism of national health insurance and the principles of la médecine libérale, a feature of the French healthcare system that embraces liberalistic views between patients and physicians. The merger of the latter to France’s health reform in Sécurité Sociale, France’s form of social security, and Statutory Health Insurance throughout the twentieth and twenty first century, created a health system fundamentally structured under Bismarckian ideas that parallels government controlled socialistic medicine tendencies. The basic philosophies that drive the French healthcare system stents from their ideal synthesis of solidarity, liberalism and pluralism (Rodwin, Le Pen 2259). These ideas create the framework in policy making allowing medicine to be practiced in an autonomous fashion and its regression from privatization in the competing markets.
The structural component of France’s healthcare policy and regulatory affairs represents a decentralized flow and administered at the regional, local, and municipality levels. Nationally, parliament reviews provisions regarding revenue, benefits and regulations and directs its initiatives to the Ministry of Health. This is proceeded to the National Council for Governance of Regional Health Agencies, which then disperses to various agencies at the regional level. Similar to the United States’ flow of power throughout government and its many agencies that track policy and directives, a myriad of agencies exist to allow transparency in health policy amongst the national and regional levels of France.
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a joint effort with the Centers for Disease Control and National Center for Health Stat...
... middle of paper ...
... cost containment. The convergence into state managed care shows extensive flexibility amongst patients and their “preferred doctor”. Although preferred doctors maintain their gate-keeping responsibilities, direct access is still granted to certain specialists- with children under 16 years of age having full exemption from the gate-keeping rule (Chevreul et al. 182).
The access to healthcare is comprehensive since French national health insurance grants direct access to providers. Roughly two-thirds of practicing health professionals are independent self-employed fee-for-service providers (Chevreul et al. 112). In addition the fee-for-service providers, healthcare is delivered through private, private-for-profit-hospitals, private-non-profit-hospitals, public hospitals and acute care hospitals that are financed through a Disease Related Group (DRG) payment system.
In the 1800’s, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium, among others, began to establish “socialized insurance policies” and medical care, which are still in effect today, while at the same time, the United States began to furthe...
It is generally accepted that the method of payment to physicians affect their professional attitude and behaviour. Consequently, health policy makers manipulate payment system in an attempt to achieve optimal health care for their citizens such as improve accessibility, quality of care, patient’s satisfaction and cost containment. In Ontario, there are a wide range of mechanisms that are used to pay physicians for their services that are funded by both federal and provincial government. According to Canada Health Act annual report (2013), the majority of primary healthcare physicians are funded using the fee for service payment arrangement but of that majority, only less than 30% are compensated exclusively according the fee for service plan. The remaining physicians are funded using one of the following mixed compensation models:
“Socialized Medicine.” The term throws shivers through the American population. For some this brings great joy. They see a world where they can visit a doctor and get the medicine they need for little or no cost. Others, however, see a world of rationed care and long waits for procedures. “Socialism” is the term that bothers. It sticks deep in the American psyche, conjuring up images from the Russian Revolution and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. In Animal Farm, the animals experience a very oppressive leader, and it represents the cruelty of the Stalin Regime. Some wonder where they might fall in the hierarchy of animals that Orwell laid out. In the current healthcare system “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others”. (Orwell) America is built on the assumption that “all men are created equal” but there is a hot debate about how that equal access to healthcare should look. Access to healthcare is a basic human right that provides economic benefits and makes for a more fair and just society.
During the study of various reforms that were proposed and denied, both the GOP and Democrats attempted to find a balance that would guarantee the success of their proposals. Years of research, growing ideologies, political views and disregard for the country's constitution sparked an array of alternatives to solve the country's healthcare spending. The expenditure of US healthcare dollars was mostly due to hospital reimbursements, which constitute to 30% (Longest & Darr, 2008). During the research for alternatives, the gr...
...trates how doctors get paid well even with a universal health system in place. Moore’s second opposing viewpoint was discussed with a couple from France. The couple described that their important expenses were only paying for their apartment. Moore did not affectively address the taxes issue. He also interviewed a handpicked couple to illustrate an upright life of living in a universal health system.
McGlynn, E, Asch, S, Adams, J, Keesey, J, & Hicks, J. (2003). The quality of health care delivered to adults in the united states. The New England Journal of Medicine, 248(26), 2635-2645.
The public health care system in Canada is still flawed, proven through the wait times that many patients have to go through. Canadians may wait up to six to nine months for “non-urgent” MRIs . The waiting list is dreary for Canadians, unlike Americans who can get their services immediately through paying out-of-pocket, the long public sector in Alberta waits up to a year for services, the wait for cataract surgery was six weeks ; these waits for some patients put the public health care system to shame, and helps push the idea of the privatized health care system a bettering option for the future of the nation. Additionally, 41 percent of adult Canadians said they experienced a difficulty in accessing hospital and physician care on weekday nights and weekends . Furthermore, it is still evident that Canadians in fact pay a higher income tax compared to Americans, due to the fact that they are paying the fund the health care system through their taxes; however, it is still significantly less to pay for a public health care system than it is privatized . Privatization is further proved as a superior choice with regards to the discharge situation many Canadians face. In Canada, it is common to see patients discharged earlier than recommended due the rising amount of patients using the free-of-charge public health care system, patients are released “quicker and sicker” because of this . Additionally, when discharged, the public health care system does not cover home care and private nurse care ; further proving the notion that there is still some forms of privatization already in the health care system in
As of April 1, 2010, many changes in the health care structure is changing. Many of these changes are reorganizing the responsibilities of who makes the decisions on how services are commissioned, the way money is spent and issuing more involvement from local authorities and opening up comp...
It is no secret that the current healthcare reform is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify ways to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources, especially family physicians, far more efficiently and effectively, have resulted in increased emphasis on primary healthcare renewal.” (Bailey, Jones & Way, 2006, p. 381).
Makarenko, J. (2007, April 1). Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care: Findings and Recommendations | Mapleleafweb.com. Mapleleafweb.com | Canada's Premier Political Education Website!. Retrieved January 26, 2011, from http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/romanow-commission-future-health-care-findings-and-recommendations
Saldin, Robert. "Wonder Drug Or Bad Medicine? A Short History Of Healthcare Reform And A Prognosis For Its Future." Juniata Voices 11.(2011): 83-91. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 May 2014.
In the past centuries, health care was the responsibility of individuals and their own families but today Medicine comes to be an institution only as societies are more productive and people take on specialized work. At the same time as people become dependent on governments and organizations to provide them their health care and insurance, here is the problem. Social conflict analysis points out the connection between health and social inequality. Following the ideas of Karl Marx, we can match health to the operation of capitalism. Most attention has gone to three main issues: access to medical care, the effects of the profit motive, and the politics of medicine.
According to Sholnik, a health system includes all the different actors, institutions, and resources that are needed to help improve the health of the population (2012). Within the German health care system, there are three different sections, outpatient care, inpatient care and rehabilitation facilities (Healthcare in Germany, 2015). Within the country they also have different cultural views on health should be dealt with.
retrospect to its governing authority (Shi & Singh, 2012). However, private and public agencies are the controlling constituent in today’s business. Free markets allow patients to choose providers without the prior approval of insurance companies. The current system offers a proposed plan of limited physicians in exchange for payment of services. Because the potential has been given to the payers, they regulate the cost of services rendered through contractual
Switzerland is predominately known for its great health care, rated as best in the world. This is largely due to how it is organized. Reorganization began in the 1994 with the Federal Heath Insurance Act, which came effect in 1996. The system is basically organized into 26 cantons, which are equivalent to US states. Each canton is responsible for the health care of the people in that region and insurance companies operate on a regional basis (James). The government decides on what policies will be covered, and sets prices of the cost of medial charges (McManus). In addition, with in the system there is a complex way with how access, quality and cost are organized.