[The French health care system and its reform]

The French health care system is characterized by its social insurance scheme with universal coverage, freedom of prescription and of location by the doctor, fee-for-service payment by patients, and free choice of doctor by patients, which essentially tends to inflate its health expenditures. Thus, the health expenditures of France has been increasing over the average expenditures of other European countries. Under the principle of autonomy of the social insurance fund, the increase in medical expenditures has been absorbed by a decrease in the reimbursement rate and an increase in the contribution rate of the insured. However, it is no longer possible to cope with this financial crisis by these traditional measures because of the worsening of the unemployment problem. Nowadays, the increase in the contribution rate is regarded as one of the important reasons for the economic stagnation of the French society. In order to cope with this difficult situation, the French government has changed its health policy from the demand side strategy to the supply side strategy. The concrete plan of this policy was presented by Prime Minister Alain Juppé (the Juppé plan). The plan consists of; 1) unification of the medical insurance scheme, 2) establishment of a ceiling on medical expenditures, 3) regionalization of health policy, 4) disclosure of medical information, 5) introduction of medical references, 6) creation of a social protection scheme for the dependent elderly, 7) introduction of an object tax for the social security fund, etc. These subjects have been materializing step by step after many twists and turn. The most important principles of the plan are the transparency of the medical information and the responsibility of each actor within the health system. The French government has conducted a lot of international comparable studies of health systems. According to the results of a series of active and profound discussions, the French government has conducted various social experiments. It is very meaningful for the Japanese government to analyze this process of health reform occurring in France in order to discuss the health system reforms in Japan.