Here is a study that will probably not be published in the French media: the private for-profit health care is twice as important in France as in the U.S.! As a French who has been told for years that only a public system can provide good health care, I had to read this information several times to believe it. But the numbers are merciless: the private sector accounts for 21% of the French hospital capacity against only 12% in the USA. However, the American system keeps leaving millions of people without health care while the French system continues to be rated as one of the world’s most effective according to the World Health Organization.
Should we conclude that the private sector is doing a better job providing health care? Certainly not. There are many other criteria to consider. But this should make the French reconsider the reality of a widely anchored stereotype describing America as a kind of ultra-capitalist jungle where people don’t mind leaving the wounded behind. If the French should fear the American health care, it is not because it is a “country where you need a credit card to access an emergency room”. But maybe because of the lack of competition between health insurances and in the pharmaceutical industry, which is selling drugs at an insane price… to a majority of public hospitals!
The Democrats – Clinton and Obama together – firmly intend to bring up the issue in the upcoming presidential debate. Hillary Clinton is even promising “affordable health insurance for each single American”. An American adaptation of the French “Universal Health Care”. Maybe Hillary spent too much time in France visiting our former first lady Bernadette Chirac?
PS. here’s an excellent post by SuperFrenchie to learn more about the French supposedly “socialized” medical system.
Filed under: France 1 - America 0 | Tags: Europe, France, Polls, stereotypes, USA
Checking out the news on France24 today, I came across a clue that might help explain why Americans misunderstand (not to say worse) the French thinking so often: they get their information from the British! Unfortunately, one can’t imagine farther from Continental Europe than the United Kingdom.
A recent poll by France24 and Harris Interactive asked both Europeans and Americans which European country they would think is the most influential in Europe today. Not surprisingly, Germany is seen as the leading country among a majority of the Europeans polled. But that’s not the case for the Americans, who believe – at the overwhelming rate of 63% – that Britain embodies leadership in Europe. Even the British do not view themselves as such a leader, although the tight results are showing how painful it has to be for them to give up!
Oh, by the way, 68% of the French are favoring Germany rather than their own country as the European leader. My thoughtful American friends might call it “surrender”. I call it “open-mindedness”. But we should all agree that this is anything but “arrogance” 
