Benchmarking Note N°10 | Available in French | March 2012

Integral part of a "social model" that is running into vacuum that was depleting the French health system. If it still continues to offer to French a high-performing health care system, its organization, its structure, its guiding principles, funding are now, at the end of its rope. Thoughts are multiplied to alert policy makers and to map out possible courses, sometimes contradictory, about available reforms.

The reasons for the urgency about the reform are known: an ageing society, an increasing desire for the public good, additional professional expertise of a specialized nature, increasing cost equipment already high, etc. In fact, health care spending continues to grow. If we want that future access to care is ensured to all citizens, we can’t ignore the issue of expenditures. And if an annual increase of 2.2% on average since 2000 does not seem so extraordinary in relative terms, it means nearly 5 billion more per year... According to Eurostat, public expenditures for health are already 9.3% of our GDP and growing faster than it.  Regarding to the economic crisis, situation is going to deteriorate with this kind of Economic uncertainties. We have entered a cycle of structural increase in health expenditures. What is at stake, that’s to find the right combination between a structural controls spending, a decrease on cost structure and the continued high quality health care which the French enjoy today ... so they will able to enjoy it.

Given the urgency of the situation, the solutions proposed by the presidential candidates seem so slights. The benchmark with Germany that we propose in this paper offers a vision that is both concise and precise on the extent of the reform effort to produce. The benchmark with Germany is justified by the comparable population size and in particular the quality of health care between the both. But there are other similarities, with a density of physicians and life expectancy that differ only slightly. But Germans succeed in these results with significantly lower costs.

Enough to give ideas to policy makers in search of innovation and boldness ...