According to the World Health Administration France has the number one healthcare system in the world. This is not to say that the French healthcare system is perfect. Like any such system, it has its weaknesses but of all the healthcare systems being used by countries today, the healthcare system in France ranks as the best.
Counting The Cost
What does it take to be the best? Many people start off their questioning of the best healthcare system in the world by asking about the cost. After all, if a healthcare system is better because it costs more then this would make sense. But this is not the case.
Compare the healthcare system in France to the US, for example. For France healthcare costs amount to a considerable $3,500 per person while in the US they add up to $6,100 per person each year. The healthcare in France is far from cheap but many countries with lower quality systems pay more.
The Winning System
In France there is no nationalized health service. Rather, there are many private practitioners who provide citizens with choices. This is important to note because many healthcare systems restrict choices by way of a nationalized system.
Doctor Salaries
Doctors in France do not make as much money as they do in the US. While US doctors make about 5 times as much as the average US wage, in France doctors only receive about twice the average wage. This may sound like a less favourable system for the doctors themselves but you have to know all the facts.
In France, medical schools may be the height of competition when you are trying to get in but once you do there is no tuition to be paid. This means that once you enter into the workforce you have no piles of debt to follow you for years as you would have as a US doctor. Doctors in France also have lower malpractice liability because of the setup of the legal system there and therefore they pay less on this type of insurance premiums.
In addition to this, France has an efficient standardized system when it comes to matters such as billing and patient reimbursement. This means that the large amounts of money that go toward paying employees of billing departments are largely unnecessary in France. You can often go to a medical office in France and not see any nonmedical personnel. They are often just not necessary.
The Best Part
Perhaps the best part about healthcare in France is that in many cases it caters to those who need it most. While insurers in the US make it difficult, expensive, or even impossible for some people in a state of ill health or with pre-existing conditions to get coverage, in France what were once liabilities are now reasons why you would get more coverage, care, and treatment.
It is not hard to see why France has the number one healthcare system in the world. They work to make the healthcare process easier on everyone, providers and patients. When you work to make things better for everyone, everything just works better.
Tom R. Rheinecker blogs about how to obtain an online masters of nursing.
November 30th, 2010 
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