cafegoddess

I woke up this morning excited to start my day, in the middle of my shower my back started to hurt. I figure I will go to Eric Kayser buy some bread and then take my aspirin.
and I will be fine. I barely made it back to my hotel, by then the pain was unbearable.

I knew I was in trouble so I asked the front person for the nearest hospital, she suggested that it would be better to call a doctor because he will come in one hour and it would cost 45 euros. He came within one hour, gave me a shot, and prescription for my pain. Ten minutes later I had all of my medicine. Thank god for the French system! The whole thing costs me 113 euros 95. My lunch at Joel Robouchon was more expensive.

How to we bring this system to America?

StuDudley

I had an emergency in France and had pretty much the same experience that you had - except that I went to a hospital. It cost me $45 plus about $1,000 in perscriptions - which my US insurance paid for.

No way this type of system will come to America, unfortuatly.

Stu Dudley

annhig

no only that, goddess, but if you were an EU citizen you would be entitled to the return of 75% of that cost. [which is what the French can claim; EU citizens are entitled to the same rights as citizens of the EU country they are in].

in the UK, you might have had to go to casualty, but it would have been free. ditto if your GP came out to you as this doc did.

the way to bring it to the US is for everyone to pay slightly more tax instead of their vastly expensive insurance policies, and nationalise your health service.

Nikki

Yes, annhig, but that isn't even on the table. For reasons I do not pretend to understand, people refuse even to consider that concept. It's enough to give me back spasms just thinking about it.

Andrew

I just caught a rerun of the Frontline (from America's Public Broadcasting System) episode from 2008 in which five different world health care systems were compared - very interesting:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...tm_source=grid

All the systems seem to have significant benefits but also some drawbacks.

cafegoddess

i can't believe the doctor came to me.

annhig

i can't believe the doctor came to me.>>

well, here in the UK it may not be YOUR Dr., but it will be A dr. My Aunty Vera [aged 94] has regular visits from her GP to her home. at no cost to her.

daveesl

Gee, my wife went to the emergency room in Florida several years ago, her knee was swollen. After only a 3-4 hour wait, a "doctor" came in, sat down, NEVER even physically touched her, said to go home and buy some Aleve. The bill was only $1,200

I am so glad we don't have that nasty, socialistic, commie health care here in the States.

Oh, and I refused to pay and instead offered to bring suit against the doctor and hospital for malpractice. The bill disappeared.

StuDudley

>>It cost me $45 plus about $1,000 in <<

Oops - that's $100 in perscriptions.

StuDudley

jpie

Another great story here. We have a family home in St. Palais sur mer, which is a small town near La Rochelle. We had friends from the US visit last summer and the wife has a major thing with getting her ears to clear from flying. She was really worried about the flight home since her ears hadn't cleared in the over 3 weeks she had already been there and she already had had one burst ear drum in her travels before.

So we went to the tourist office and they gave us the name of the ear nose and throat, (or otorhinolaryngologiste in French for those of you up for a pronunciation tongue twister) specialist in the next village over. When we passed by his office the receptionist said, "Are you Americans? I love California, let me show you my pictures of Disneyland." "Well, we are fully booked-but just come back at 3 today and we will get you in." So sure enough at 3 they got us in-my friend was shocked to see that his office was a room in his house looking out over his garden with a baby grand piano in the corner and another corner with his exam area complete with this high tech gizmo hes stuck in her ear to measure pressure and whether she had fluid behind the ear drum.

60 euros later we were done with a prescription for the pharmacy which totaled another 6 euros. Seems like a left wing government take over to me

isabel

My daughter is currently living in Paris this year. She's been sick for a couple of weeks and finally went to a doctor near her apartment who had "open hours" on Saturday. She was diagnosed with bronchitis and sinusitis, given scripts for three meds. Total for the visit and the meds - 40 euro. And she can file the paper work and get reimbursed even for that.

StCirq

I have had nothing but absolutely superlative experiences with the health system in France - and that includes many visits for my kids and nephews and elderly parents - was never more than 40 euro, plus the cost of prescriptions, which always got filled with the utmost care and careful explanations from the pharmacists. Oh, and in every case, the doctor either came to our house or spent 40 minutes to an hour with us asking all those relevant questions like what do you eat? I've never had an American doctor ask me what I eat.

So why DON'T we pay a bit more in taxes for this? Who could

kerouac

Anyway, for those of us living here, a basic visit to the GP costs 22 euros. The French health system reimburses 14 euros of that, and my company health plan refunds the remaining 8 euros. My doctor spends all morning making house calls and receives patients at his office starting at 1:30 pm (usually until 6:30). I do not pay anything for prescribed medicine -- I just show the pharmacy my health card.

nancicita

I had a similar experience one time in Paris -- ended up in the hospital after a skin infection worsened. I was given care within an hour of entry into an equivalent of an emergency clinic. It's too bad that so many people are against a nationalized health care system in America. Yes, it involves higher taxation, but in my opinion having equal access to affordable health care is the right of every person.

It's a complex issue, obviously, so I'll just leave it at that.

greg

I think the problem is with the way the question is framed. If we postulate that tax=bad, then anything that adds tax is automatically labeled undesirable.

If people start looking at what maximizes their disposable income instead, I think we can make more progress with the discussion.

kerouac

One reason that countries like France save money with a system like this (don't forget that the U.S. spends much more money on health care, public or private) is that people stay in better health and don't require a lot of the major treatment that people who wait until it's too late need.

cafegoddess

kerouac,

Can you recommed a place where could get a massage? I am 50% better but I will be doing more traveling later this week.

Thanks

alihutch

I could detail the amount of care that my Mother and myself have had at no cost in the UK, courtesy of the NHS, but it would get boring...and it has all been good and I know that I never have to worry about seeing the doctor or going to hospital. I'd happily pay more tax to improve things further here.
I find it interesting that that healthcare in the US costs 16% of GDP, but in the UK it's 8%.

hmmm

You bring this system to America by hiding the true price of the services being rendered and then "proving" to everyone that you are more "efficient."

kerouac

Sorry, cafegoddess, I know absolutely nothing about massages. Most of my colleagues with various back and/or leg problems often go to the "ostéopathe". Frankly, I have always gotten excellent service from the various "Centre Médical" establishments over the city, especially for minor situations when I don't know any specialist for the problem. Also, often you can get an appointment the same day, and they are even open on Saturdays.

This place I go to is COSEM, the Centre Médical Miromesnil, except that it isn't at Miromesnil anymore -- it is now on the right side of the Saint Augustin church near Saint Lazare.

Here is their website: www.cmmiromesnil.com

I don't have the slightest idea how much they charge when you have to pay -- I just show my card and everything is "free". But lots of people not on a European health plan go there, and I know that it's cheap because it is a non-profit organization (which you wouldn't think when you see how luxurious the place is now).