The Qualitative Performance of the French Health Care System Evolutions compared to Europe since 1970

Abstract

To judge a health care system, it is necessary to analyse its results in terms of health and to bring them back to its economic effectiveness. Health outcomes can be evaluated in several ways but none of them is really representative. To locate the performance in terms of health for the French system, we thus compared France with four European countries (Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the United-Kingdom), which are close in relation to and comparable in terms of behaviour and standard of living, from 1960 to 1995. We selected a sample of frequent and revealing pathologies of the Health care system activity and risks behaviour. The result of this approach is paradoxical and sometimes in contradiction with the common belief, which often confuses the means and the results and allots the health status mainly to the action of the Health care system.Health Status Indicators, Health care system performance, Death rates, France and OECD countries