French think-tank warns over UK model

A French think-tank has published a report examining the potentially "perverse effects" of adopting UK-style health care financing policies  in France under the "loi Bachelot," a reform package currently under  discussion by the National Assembly.

A particular concern of the Institut economique Molinari's paper is the  growing control of physicians by government authorities, including  trying to force newly-qualified doctors to move to underprovided areas.  Guillaume Vuillemey, the report's author, notes that this has the  unintended consequence of making a career in medicine less attractive,  or inciting health care professionals to emigrate, worsening the  shortage in parts of France.

The report examines the role of the National Institute for Health and  Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body that determines which medicines  will be covered by the National Health Service across the UK apart from  Scotland. Mr Vuillemey concludes that the implementation of a similar  system in France would involve restricting access to new drugs.