Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

The French government is under pressure to cut spending, considering the budget restrictions expected for 2011, and one of its potential strategies--increasing the retirement age--has already met with public disapproval. According to government figures, more than 1 million people protested throughout France on Tuesday to rally against the French government’s plans to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018.

But the recent unrest has implications that reach far beyond pensions. The need to cut costs by reducing the number of payments handed out will mean that any potential improvements to the French healthcare system are also likely to be put on the back burner.

France’s healthcare system is widely touted as one of the best, but it is not without its flaws. Cracks had already been identified in the system well before Tuesday’s events. On July 14th, the Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (CREDOC) released a report stating 13% of the French population—some eight million people—curbs their medical care spending to avoid paying high and hard-hitting expenses.

For some people this means using low-cost health care centers, where the wait time to see a doctor is often long. For others, it means cutting out regular check-ups, or seeking medical attention only in times of emergency.

The number of French people pursuing such methods to trim costs has risen by 10% in the past three decades, an increase that the author of the CREDOC study attributes to health care reforms during this period.  Reforms have often sought to target inefficiency and a massive, mounting health care deficit.

CREDOC also reported that purposely restricting health expenditures was three times more common among the nation’s poor than among the wealthy.  According to the French newspaper l’Humanité, the middle class also has to make significant trade-offs sometimes.

However, the French system isn’t all long waits and even longer lines. Although it is expensive, costing $3,300 per person in 2005, it still comes in cheaper than its American equivalent, which was $6,400 per person for the same year. French people who fall ill with one of 30 “long term and expansive illnesses,” such as cancer, will find that the government will pick up the tab in full.

This is likely to change in the future with mounting national economic shortfalls. In 2008, the French health care system ran a 9 billion Euro deficit, and users may soon be forced to pay for services that were formerly free of charge as the Sarkozy government tries to shore up its debt.

The challenge for France is to continue to provide universal health care in the face of both internal and EU pressure to trim its national debt of €1.5 trillion. But with the recent protests over the raising of the retirement age, social unrest in France is only due to become worse as the government tries to enact further austerity measures.

Read a detailed overview of the French health care system in "France on $3,000 a Year" reprinted from the Summer 2010 issue of the World Policy Journal.

--Caroline Soussloff & Betsy Mead

Picture via Flickr, user cudmore