Freedom Fries

First and foremost we have to take into account that Michael Moore, an unquestionably talented director, is a man with an agenda. He is known to report only facts that fit and disregard or distort the facts that don’t. Therefore, I have done my own research on France’s health care system. While it is quite effective, it is primarily so because of a fundamental difference in mentalities between France and the United States. The term workaholic is a fairly unknown concept in France where it seems that their motivation is more to live a relaxed and enjoyable life rather than an intense ambitious one. This intensity makes the United States great and does not seem to be a big priority for the French. The French work week until recently was 30 hours a week and because the productivity of the country was not optimal it was raised to what Americans have: 40 hours a week. In the United States many if not most people work far longer hours than 40 and need to be told to slow down. This is why paying for a recovering cancer patient to go to a resort in the south of France for a week may not fly with the American tax payer. In America that person would most likely want to get back to work as soon as possible. This attitude is reflected in the French health care system: the French prefer to be taxed and not to worry about things that they transfer the responsibility for to the government. Indeed, the French system is funded through massive taxation [13.55% payroll taxes, additional 5.25% income tax and additional taxes on alcohol and cigarettes] of the sort that would not be acceptable in the U.S. These points were not shown by Michael Moore, who knows how to stir up emotion and although he makes a lot of valid points and probably is correct in a general sense, he exaggerates and distorts facts to suit his left wing ideology. Because of that one must always take Moore’s films with a grain of salt.

On your second point, there are indeed things we can learn from such a system. We can learn that there are fundamental rights that people have for affordable health care and we should be able to provide all citizens with basic health care. We should also learn that health care should not provide excessive services [such as someone to do your laundry] at the expense of the tax payer. It is also important to note that in the U.S. considerably higher percentage of funds spent on health care are going for administration, as compared to France [10.8% as opposed to 23% in the U.S]. Just increasing efficiency of health care providing in the U.S. can go a long way toward being able to finance a universal health care.
I think that the bottom line of any such debate is that the U.S. is the only developed country without universal health care – a situation that I find totally unacceptable. We should learn from any and all other countries, even from the French, modify their systems as needed, and assure that each American is assured of having affordable and effective health care.