Michael Moore in Paris

Be sure to take a look at Whytraveltofrance.com’s post on Sicko I’d been planning to see Michael Moore’s latest documentary on heatlhcare even before I realized that France would be one of the four countries (Canada, UK, Cuba and France) that he chose to visit and compare to the U.S. healthcare system. Moore makes his way to the esplanade of the Palais du Chaillot for a great view of the Eiffel Tower and he also spends some time talking to American expats about their impressions of heathcare in France.

As you may recall in some of my past posts about French healthcare from a foreigner’s perspective, you probably couldn’t pick a better place to get sick. A visit to a top blood specialist set Chris back about 20 Euros. A round of antibiotics will cost you less than 10 Euros.

Moore suggests in his documentary that maybe one of the reasons we’ve heard so much anti-French rhetoric stateside in the past decades has been for fear that we might actually TALK to people and find out that many countries wouldn’t accept the high costs some of us are resigned to pay.

When I met my dentist in Caen, and told her that the cost for a filling in the US would be quite a bit more expensive, she nodded her head understandingly. “Astonomique!” Astonomical.

A recent editorial in the New York Times by a frequent contributor on healthcare issues admits that Michael Moore’s film does make its point - but the author insisted that Moore overstates the issue and in some cases oversimplifies.

Well, it is obviously true that the French healthcare system may have its problems, but healthcare workers are much more vocal when the system isn’t doing what they feel it should be doing. (I was just speaking today with a nurse in the the American hospital system - she told me that it isn’t unusual for intern doctors to work here on 12 to 24 hours shifts. They can actually work straight through 24 hours - in a cardiac unit, no less, if their replacement doesn’t show up!) Does this concern you? It does concern me.

Because of France’s current deficit problems, I am hoping that the country will never consider taking on the American model of HMOs. If you are French and you’re reading this, you must see Sicko, in particular the valuable footage of Richard Nixon discussing the decision to create privatized HMOS. The beginning of the end.

Now as for the rosy picture, Michael Moore paints of healthcare in France, don’t forget that the healthcare has paid for with the BS&T of French salaries. If you haven’t worked in France, you don’t qualify for the national health insurance program. However you can apply for certain insurance programs that are offered with a monthly premium for foreigners living in France (i.e. embassy workers, etc.).
Although the monthly premiums are high, there are usually very low deductibles, or no deductible and many things such as regular office visits, dental visits, eyeglasses, etc. are covered.

Prices for doctors’ visits also vary depending on the doctor you choose to see. Some doctors are free to set their own fees if they have a private practice, so the 20 Euros a visit is not necessarily written in stone.

Rather than hop on the next plane to France, to Canada, the UK, or any other country that may offer more reasonably priced healthcare than the U.S., maybe it’s time to start asking the question why?