Do the French have it better?

Those who are promoting Obama's universal health care point to the French. Everyone in France has health care, but do they really have it better than we do?

In the U.S., the personal tax rate tops out at around 36%. In France, it's 50%. In France, employers contribute 12.8% of employee compensation for national health insurance. Add that to the 7.65% employers are already paying for social security/medicare, and you will probably price some people out of their jobs.

In France, chronic deficits have forced the government to add large amounts of tax revenue to health insurance financing, including a 5.25% income tax surcharge -- they pay tax on their tax. The situation is so unsustainable, according to the head of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, that the French government will either have to raise employee contributions or limit national health insurance to the 10 million people with chronic illnesses.

In France, Elizabeth Dutertre needed surgery to correct double vision. She was lucky the first time -- she was able to have the surgery two months after the diagnosis. When she needed a second surgery, however, she was told it would be two years. She opted to take care of it herself and had the surgery in three weeks. In the U.S. however, though Obama denies it, we are headed for mandatory government health care. No one will have the option to go private.

Doctors in France are opting out of the national health care and giving up government pensions in the process because the government-set fees aren't enough to cover their expenses. Will the same happen in the U.S.? I know of several doctors here who no longer accept Medicaid, so it's not unreasonable to assume their practices won't be able to survive when everything is mandated by the government.

In the U.S., treatments and survival rates for cancers and other diseases are better than in France. And isn't that the bottom line? Universal care doesn't make sense economically or medically.

"France controls health costs." The Dallas Morning News; May 17, 2009; p. 14A.