Biz Magazine Praises 'Stellar Results' of French Health Care

BusinessWeek says the U.S. should learn a lesson from France about how to run health care. According to the July 9 issue:

“France also demonstrates that you can deliver stellar results with this mix of public and private financing,” wrote correspondent Kerry Capell.

Capell also called the French universal system “generous” and stated that it “offers valuable lessons for would-be health-care reformers in the U.S.”

Specifically referencing Michael Moore’s propaganda-mentary, Capell said the French system is not “quite as superb as Sicko maintains, but it’s pretty good.”

There were no critics of French health care quoted in her story, only proponents of it.

Lacking from Capell’s piece was a dose of perspective about French health care, because she included three experts who all support the system: Victor G. Rodwin of New York University, Daniel J. Pedersen of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Shanny Peer of the French-American Foundation.

As Kyle Smith pointed out in a review of “Sicko” in the New York Post, the French system is far from flawless. He specifically mentioned the August 2003 heat wave that claimed the lives of nearly 15,000 people in France.

“The French parliament blamed the health care system. That’s five times 9/11’s toll, all of it preventable, all of it unlamented by Moore,” Smith wrote.

Capell’s praise for the “stellar” system became really ironic when she stated that France is now dealing with “runaway health-care inflation. That has led to some hefty tax hikes” and the country is trying to find a way to “rein in costs” by - of all things, borrowing "U.S.-style health-maintenance organization tactics."