France and America Compared

One more helpful quote from Roger Cohen's comparison of French and American health care:

So beyond all the hectoring, the main French-American difference on health
care is not ideological but a question of efficiency. Both countries use a
mixture of public and private. France is at a very far remove from “socialism.”
The United States has already “socialized” a significant portion of its
medicine. (Nothing illustrates right-wing ideological madness in the United
States better than calls from some to “keep the government out of my
Medicare!”)

The real difference is that the French state mandates health coverage
for everyone, picks up the tab where necessary (as for the unemployed), holds
down costs through a national fee system, and uses mainly nonprofit mutual
insurers even for supplemental private coverage. The profit motive is outweighed
by the principle of universal health care, with a corresponding effect on
doctors’ salaries.

These are real distinctions. But the “socialism sucks” Republican
broadside on Obama’s reform plans — with its overtone that the “cosmopolitan”
president wants to “Europeanize” American medicine — is nonsense. It’s nonsense
because the free market is vigorous in France (and Europe), because there are
all sorts of European approaches to health (within the compulsory coverage), and
because the United States has already “socialized” aplenty without turning its
capitalism pink.