This article argues the larger percentage of GDP spent on health care as
compared to Britain explains the fact that France's health care system is
superior to that of Britain and that there are not long waiting lists. But
if this were so the US system should be the best rather than the worst and
Cuba's system must be nearly the worst. While percentage of GDP spent on
health care is one factor, it is far from a determining factor in improving
the quality of a health care system. The problems in Britain are more
plausibly explained by the fact that private health care now co-exists with
public care tending to starve the public system and creating long waiting
periods in that sector.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
----- Original Message -----
From: Lisa & Ian Murray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 11:01 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:8885] Taxes and Health; how to convert a conservative
Published on Friday, March 9, 2001 in the International Herald Tribune
A Conservative Convert To Socialized Medicine
by David Burgess
PARIS - What's the old joke? A conservative is a liberal who has just been
mugged? Well, I am a conservative who has just been "mugged" by the
socialized
French health system, and, to my astonishment, I'm a believer.
I have lived in France for nearly 19 years. Until about two years ago I was
very
cross about the amount I had to pay in taxes and in "social charges," which
finance the medical system, in which a pauper gets about the same medical
care
as a millionaire.
Let me take you quickly through my experience of being gravely ill in
France.
For 20 years or so I had been a gobbler of antacids in one form or another,
and
in October 1998 I began to have trouble swallowing. I assumed it was an
ulcer
and took the appropriate medicine, but it didn't go away.
At the end of the year I was referred to a doctor who performed an
endoscopy, in
which, under anesthetic, a tube is inserted in the throat, allowing the
doctor
to have a look around and do a biopsy. He found that I had a malignant tumor
at
the base of my esophagus, where it meets the stomach, that had virtually
closed
the passage.
The doctor lost no time. He called my local hospital, which fortunately was
one
of the four in the Paris area that could do the operation that I needed, and
reserved me a bed for the next day.
At the hospital, within an hour or two of my arrival, my surgeon, who has
the
title of professor, as he is head of the department of digestive surgery,
paid
me a visit. He outlined the operation I would have, and, in answer to my
question, said the mortality rate for the kind of cancer that I had was
about 85
percent within the first three years. But, he said, "Don't worry, we're
going to
beat it."
Foolishly, I suppose, I believed him. Now, more than two years later, I
still
do; he has lots of charisma.
After my operation, which lasted more than 10 hours, I was in the hospital
another three weeks, then home, where a nurse came by each day to give me
the
shots I needed, check and dress my surgical wounds and make sure that I
wasn't
losing weight. Then back to the hospital for three days of chemotherapy
every
three weeks - four treatments in all.
I was operated on in mid-January 1999, went back to work part-time in
mid-May,
and returned to work full-time in September. (For those of you who are less
than
enthusiastic at the prospect of going to work in the morning, there is
nothing
like a serious illness to adjust your outlook.)
Why does socialized medicine seem to work in some places and be a disaster
elsewhere? Anyone who reads the British press is assaulted daily with tales
of
how cancer patients have to wait months for an appointment with an
oncologist,
or a candidate for a hip or knee replacement has to wait years. In France,
such
delays can be measured in days or, at most, weeks.
Why the difference? Take a deep breath. These are the numbers, provided by
the
French and British health ministries and translated into dollars (bear in
mind
that Britain and France have roughly the same populations). French total
expenditure on health in 1999 was $109.5 billion. In Britain it was about
$78.02
billion. Per capita, it was $1,800 in France and $1,312 in Britain. As a
percentage of the gross domestic product, it was 8.5 percent in France and
5.9
percent in Britain.
I should mention that I am not yet out of the woods. My markers, blood tests
that indicate the presence of cancer, started to rise last summer, and since
the
end of September I have again been in chemotherapy. The markers have dropped
consistently, showing that the therapy is working. The treatment is
debilitating. I expect to resume work part-time from April or May until the
summer vacation, and full-time thereafter.
Last summer, I asked a friend of mine, a dean at a medical school in New
England, what the cost of my care would have been in the United States.
"About
$700,000," she said. I haven't seen a bill. Well, that is not quite true. I
got
a bill for 43 francs (about $6.50). I'm not sure what it was for, but I paid
it.
I no longer complain about my taxes.
Copyright © 2001 the International Herald Tribune
