France Fights Universal Care's High Cost - WSJ.com

France Fights Universal Care's High Cost - WSJ.com: "France claims it long ago achieved much of what today's U.S. health-care overhaul is seeking: It covers everyone, and provides what supporters say is high-quality care. But soaring costs are pushing the system into crisis. The result: As Congress fights over whether America should be more like France, the French government is trying to borrow U.S. tactics.

In recent months, France imposed American-style 'co-pays' on patients to try to throttle back prescription-drug costs and forced state hospitals to crack down on expenses... And service cuts...are prompting complaints from patients, doctors and nurses that care is being rationed."

The French system's fragile solvency shows how tough it is to provide universal coverage while controlling costs, the professed twin goals of President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul.

Click the link above and read this article. One of the most persistent arguments I get from people defending the ObamaCare agenda is, "it works well in Europe, Europeans love their health care." Well, after I point out the Americans overwhelmingly love their health care too, I point out that the Europeans are living on borrowed time. As the article points out, the French system is running persistent deficits and health care costs are climbing steeply. Unfortunately, after decades of French citizens considering health care a God-given right, it has become politically impossible to implement reforms to bring costs back in line.

France has a nice system - lot's of choice - limited central planning. But, it does not have any free market mechanisms to help reduce costs at the margin. There are only two choices for the French going forward: 1) accept free-market reforms like co-pays, health savings accounts, etc, or 2) create an ObamaCare central authority to ration care. The health care free lunch is over.