page_title: Health care in France
section_title: Spending
hierarchical_section_title: Health care in France / Spending
caption_attribution_description: English: This image depicts total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP from 2005 to 2008 for France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. An 'OECD Health Data 2010' report is used for the information, which is available here.
context_page_description: The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "best overall health care" in the world. In 2017, France spent 11.3% of GDP on health care, or US$5,370 per capita, a figure higher than the average spent by rich countries, though similar to Germany and Canada, but much less than in the US. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.
  Most general physicians are in private practice but draw their income from the public insurance funds. These funds, unlike their German counterparts, have never gained self-management responsibility. Instead, the government has taken responsibility for the financial and operational management of health insurance. The French government generally refunds patients 70% of most health care costs, and 100% in case of costly or long-term ailments. Supplemental coverage may be bought from private insurers, most of them nonprofit, mutual insurers.
context_section_description: The French healthcare system was named by the World Health Organization in 2008 as the best performing system in the world in terms of availability and organization of health care providers . It is a universal health care system. It features a mix of public and private services, relatively high expenditure, high patient success rates and low mortality rates, and high consumer satisfaction. Its aims are to combine low cost with flexibility of patient choice as well as doctors' autonomy. While 99.9% of the French population is covered, the rising cost of the system has been a source of concern, as has the lack of emergency service in some areas. In 2004, the system underwent a number of reforms, including introduction of the Carte Vitale smart card system, improved treatment of patients with rare diseases, and efforts aimed at reducing medical fraud. While private medical care exists in France, the 75% of doctors who are in the national program provide care free to the patient, with costs being reimbursed from government funds. Like most countries, France faces problems of rising costs of prescription medication, increasing unemployment, and a large aging population.
  Expenses related to the healthcare system in France represented 10.5% of the country's GDP and 15.4% of its public expenditures.  In 2004, 78.4% of these expenses were paid for by the state.  By 2015 the cost had risen to 11.5% of GDP - the third highest in Europe.
  In a sample of 13 developed countries France was first in its population weighted usage of medication in 14 classes in both 2009 and 2013. The drugs studied were selected on the basis that the conditions treated had high incidence, prevalence and/or mortality, caused significant long-term morbidity and incurred high levels of expenditure and significant developments in prevention or treatment had been made in the last 10 years. The study noted considerable difficulties in cross border comparison of medication use.
caption: Total health spending as a percentage of GDP for France compared amongst various other first world nations from 2005 to 2008
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