The Changing Health System in France

This paper reviews the performance of French health care system from an economic viewpoint. It also provides some policy recommendations. The health system in France is regarded as delivering high quality services, with freedom of choice and generally no waiting lists for treatments. Access to medical services is equal among the population and, unlike in some other countries, people can get the treatments they need irrespective of their social status or work situation. It is therefore not surprising that the French population is relatively satisfied with the health system. As this paper points out, however, this high quality comes at a price: health expenditure in relation to GDP is among the highest in the OECD and risks increasing further in the future in the absence of adequate measures. Past reform efforts, which have shifted the cost to the patient through higher out-of-pocket payments, have proved ineffective and raised equity questions. A new approach is therefore ...