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PS. The only medical system that might offer the same breadth and capabilities as found in the US is perhaps France.



Paying for services rendered is not the problem, believe me. I'm not that cheap. I know health care costs money and I'm more than willing to pay my share.
What I find lacking in (for example) the US system is solidarity. It was and still is hard to imagine that someone is sick and can't get treatment, because he/she has not enough money. That's where my main problem is, not with the payment of things.



This doesn't make sense. The first sentence says "Paying for services rendered is not the problem" but the fifth sentence directly contradicts with "someone is sick and can't get treatment, because he/she has not enough money".

Generally poor people can qualify for the government welfare programs: they don't have to do without. The gap is in not-quite-poor but not-rich-enough-to-pay and don't-have-other-means. Unfortunately without doubling taxes there's no way to extend freebies all the way up into the middle class range.

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JRV, how did you arrive at your PS about the French medical system?


When I read papers that mention medical advances and such, they mostly come from two countries: the US and France. And when rich people from third-world countries travel for medical treatment they almost always go to France or the US. I would be interested in a description of the French system from an economic standpoint as to how they're apparently able to keep up R&D spending when other countries with socialized health care systems seemingly don't.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock