France vs. USA: Health Care

now in terms of population health the French outdo us and I'm embarrassed to say that as an American hands down look at any indicator you like life expectancy at birth they do better than we do infant mortality they do better than we do a female life expectancy at 65 they outlive us female life expectancy at 80 or male life expectancy at 80 years of age where medical care matters they outdo us disability-adjusted life expectancy which takes into account measures of disability they outdo us years of life lost we have more years of life lost this is not a Republican or democratic debate these are the facts but that's not the way to judge a health care system entirely surely a health care system reflects these indicators but not just the health care system my colleagues at NYU would still say that we have the best health care system in the world in spite of these indicators they would argue that these indicators reflect other things for which they assume no responsibility social services inequality of income family policies which are very strong in France maternal and child health programs all of which are factors which explain why they have better population health than we do so we have to look at other indicators and one important indicator of health system performance is called avoidable mortality that is in a good health care system people women should not die in childbirth people should not die of tuberculosis people should not die of ischemic heart disease people should not die of cancers that can be cured and when we look at that I'm embarrassed to say that we come out in the United States is 19 and the French come out as number one I repeat number one that is a fact that cannot be ignored it must be addressed it was written up in Health Affairs a reputable journal it was confirmed with different measures by the OECD and it has not received in my judgment sufficient discussion another indicator of how well a system is doing in a theme of this subcommittee that I know is dear to chairman Sanders is access to primary care you can talk about primary care till you're blue in the face but let's look at the consequences of whether you receive primary care or not in different health care systems we have a very established measure of primary care access it's very direct if people end up in the hospital for conditions for which you should not have exacerbations if you will have access to primary care that's called avoidable hospitalization and on that criterion avoidable hospitalization the rates of avoidable hospitalization are twice as high in the United States as they are in France that's an unfortunate statistic from the point of view of an American but that's the way it is lessons that we can draw I believe that health systems cannot be transplanted from one country to another but we can talk about some issues and I'll just tick them off I'll go over 30 seconds if you'll allow me mr. chairman in France there is no choice of insurance plan everybody is in the same plan for the standardized benefits but there's a complete choice of hospital or doctor in France all insurers in there are more than one pay the same price according to nationally set rates you don't have a lower price for Medicaid a higher price for Medicare and even higher price for commercials in France there were no physician gatekeepers everybody can go where they like no one's telling them what Network they can or cannot go and they don't have to call their insurance company to get authorization in France there's extensive coinsurance small but there's a voluntary you're gonna have to learn more about France in a few minutes


  1. The American Health Care System is a joke, don't get me wrong. But when you take out fatalities from driving and shootings our life expectancy is even higher than Japan. Also, infant mortality is also a BS metric because it is measured differently in every country. The quality in the US and the technology is the best, but the system as a whole is flawed, inefficient, and unsustainable.

  2. France is better than usa on many levels….. But it's true that us citizen are often xenophobic and madly patriotic in a stupid way (my country is the most beautiful even if i never travel any other country etc….).

  3. If France paid its NATO treaty obligations rather than sticking it to the USA, maybe things would be different. The USA has become the global police, the military is the bulk of the US spending. I for one want to see the US withdraw from this unwanted task and create a fortress America. We already see how France is being invaded, conquered, and colonized by black Africa and the Muslim middle east. Imagine if the USA pulled out of NATO and let the Europeans fend for themselves. There would be WW3 in short order, since the Europeans cannot go long without starting a fight with one another. They get 2 months vacation every year, full retirement, and womb to tomb medical care, and we get walk in clinics run by immigrant nurses, 1 week vacation per year, and no retirement. Fortress America would solve that problem.

  4. Trump tried to get rid of Obamacare which is really a fake health plan that soon nobody will be able to afford and he was met with fierce resistance. Go figure.

  5. I am embarrassed by the past, the inflicted creation on the human being here in the US are DISHONORABLE. I was very well informed back in the years past regarding healthcare in France and the form of illness obviously at a low. That they get treated under WORK CARE policies, time off, and at overall low STRESS infiltration factors.

  6. If you can afford $300 for a paranoid fart, than the American healthcare is the best in the world…💰💰💰

  7. why does he keep repeating he's saddened to be behind another country ? this crazy need to be N°1 is ridiculous

  8. the reason France's birth death rate is lower than the U.S. is because the U.S counts babies born under 500 grams weight (pre-mature babies that are highly unlikely to live more than week) in it's birth rate statistics, where as France, and many western European countries, don't.

  9. We came out at #19 who is making those of the Health and Dental Care system accountable??

  10. I have my latin passport, went to Cuba to cure for free…and with hot young nurses in my room of course. 😉

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