Sicko's Version of France

As we discussed in class, Michael Moore’s work must always be taken with a grain of salt, and Sicko is no exception. Sicko depicts France as near-heavenly and makes no mention of any potential drawbacks of the country’s health care system. Although I concede being at least somewhat influenced by the society in which I grew up—arguably the most individualistic society on the planet—I can’t imagine that the entire French population is thrilled about seeing their 5.5% personal income tax payment put towards a universal health care system. To top it all off, a full 87% of the population is not content with the public health insurance plans available and opts to purchase supplementary coverage. And it doesn’t end there, because in addition to employer taxes, employee taxes, personal income taxes, and the cost of supplementary coverage, the French health care system is sustained largely by high co-pays (from Adam’s International Health Care System Series).

Well I sure sound like an individualistic pessimist, don’t I?...if that’s what it takes to provide some balance and objectivity to Sicko. True, health costs in France are high compared to those of its neighbors (11.1% of its GDP), but still put the U.S. to shame (15.3% GDP). And France still manages to cover its entire population. Clearly, the U.S. can take at least a few lessons from France’s health care system. For the foreseeable future, the U.S. will never espouse a completely public health care system. In fact, as we’ve talked about, Americans are generally fearful of such an idea. And there are clear benefits to competition in a more or less private industry—in research and development, quality of care, etc. So it would probably be prudent of the U.S. to look toward France and its mixture of public and private provision and financing, which seems like it might prove a good fit for the U.S. health care system.