Anything that Michael Moore produces demonstrates some truths and some extreme stretches of the truth. Keeping that in mind, I believe that France is doing a beautiful job of organizing and executing a universal healthcare system. Whether they have the best, that is dependent on a society’s needs; whether they can improve, of course! More than likely, Moore portrayed the MOST positive aspects of France’s system and none of the negative. In contrast, he showed ALL the bad from the U.S. and not much of the good. Anyone thinking clearly would know that this severely skewed portrayal is not 100% accurate, or at least not the entire truth. What Moore failed to mention is the very high cost, long wait times, and lack of physician regulation of the French system. Again, these are probably similar or lesser problems as to those seen in the U.S., but France’s healthcare is still not perfect.
Healthcare reformers in the United States have a lot to learn from most other countries – our costs are extravagant and yet our care lacks tremendously in comparison to many other countries. As we have evaluated in class, the U.S. cannot completely finance every cent of a healthcare system through a single means. And since France is able to finance their healthcare through various means, it may be a good model for what we need to change to. So, is Moore’s depiction perfect? Not at all! Can we take his comments in stride and delve further into what we can learn from our Friends to improve our own state of health? Most definitely! The point is no one is perfect, everything should be revised (eventually) for improvements, and recreating the wheel is inefficient, costly, and down right silly.
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