Rationing health care in France.

Since the Plan Juppé (1995), many facets of the French health care system have been the target of new legislative measures. This paper discusses the main features of the financing and provision of health care services, and focuses on issues related to priority setting and rationing. For more than 20 years, successive but systematic changes have been implemented.

Health care under French national health insurance.

Several elements of the French health system--the predominance of office-based medical practice, the mix of private and public hospitals, the use of patient cost sharing, direct payment of physicians by patients, and financing derived from payroll taxes--closely resemble aspects of the U.S. health system.

Health services utilization and physician income trends.

Statistics from several Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries on consumption and cost of health care services, physician workload, and physician earnings are presented. Data are analyzed according to type of physician payment used: fee for service, per case, capitation, or salary. Incentives theoretically embodied in each payment method are often offset by other factors--scale of charges, patient out-of-pocket payment, and patient access or physician activity restrictions.

Ambulatory care: France, Federal Republic of Germany, and United States.

This study describes the results of a comparison of ambulatory medical care data for France, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and the United States of America (U.S.).