[Public and private hospital care--an economic approach (author's transl)]

In an investigation involving over 1,000 patients, the LEGOS group (Univ. de Dauphine) has studied the two sectors which co-exist in the French hospital service--the public sector and the private profit--making sector. This paper gives the economic results of the investigation. The private clinics function in a commercial framework and define a privileged area of treatment related to the "cost" of the medical activities which occur in this sector. The public hospital aims at satisfying certain needs, in particular those associated with emergencies, and economic considerations are only considered in the last resort. These conclusions are drawn from observations on medically defined situations treated in the two sectors and on medical activities occurring in them.