Health Care System of France

Abstract

The French health care system has long been characterized by its fee-for-service payment system, freedom of prescription and location by the doctor, and free choice of doctors by the patient under the quasi-universal medical insurance scheme. However, since 1980s the French government has been conducting a series of reforms of health care system, in order to stabilize the rapid increase in the national medical expenditures, some of which limit the generosity of the traditional French system; i.e., global budgeting for public hospital services, establishment of standardized medical practices and introduction of patients' medical information system managed by general practitioners. These reforms must be very suggestive for the future health care policy in Japan, therefore, it is strongly expected that some collaborative research projects between the two countries will be organized near future.