In 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) assessed the different health systems in 191 countries. Out of that study, France stood out and was judged to have the best health care service in the world which was published in The World Health Report 2000. This was the first-ever analysis of the world’s health systems. Surprisingly, the United States ranked only 37th in spite of the fact that it poured the most money into health care than any other nation. Among the top ten were Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan. (Socialized Medicine’s Aches and Pains: Britannica Online 2006)
What made France stand out and beat the United States? Both countries are considered progressive and have high levels of expertise and a well developed health care system. Yet what are the factors that made France more successful in implementing and delivering health care to its population? If annual expenditure is not a gauge of providing adequate health care, then there might be factors that ought to be looked into. In light of this, the researcher will look into the methods of financing the health care systems and what are the existing types of funding employed.
Funding Systems in Health Care A. Taxation There are three basic systems that are most popularly used throughout the world in relation to funding a nation’s health care system. The first one is taxation. Taxes are imposed on all productive citizens in almost any country and these taxes serve to build infrastructure and provide government services. Taxation is the most common means used by countries such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.
The following table illustrates the most recent annual budget allotted of each country for the health care system. From the table above, Germany puts more public funds into the health care system than any other country in the European Union at 8. 6% and is ranked number six in among the best health care systems of the world. Interestingly, France is among the top five biggest in terms of allocation of public funds for health care spending about 7. 4%. In France, French employees pay about 20% of their gross salary to fund the social security system.
A portion of this goes directly towards funding the healthcare and under French laws every legal resident of France has access to the health care system. Whenever a person subscribes to the social security system, a portion of the cost of their medical treatment is subsidized by the state. Nevertheless, the difference of the French’s health care system lies in the fact that a person has to shoulder the bill of medical treatment. One then gets a refund of about 70% of the cost after ten days. (FrenchEntree 2006)
In terms of access, it is already mentioned that all legal residents of France have access to the social security system as long as they are taxpayers. This access is given to all social classes, regardless of gender or religious orientation. When taking into account the different services offered, there is no waiting period towards accessing health care services unlike in other state funded health care systems such as the UK where there exists a long list if one would avail of the state services. In order to avail of faster services, one would have to opt for private hospitals and private doctors.