Although France has probably not set the best example of controlling health care costs or developing its pharmaceutical industry for quite some time, in the past year or so there have been real changes, Bernard Lemoine, director general of the French drug industry association SNIP, told delegates at the recent 17th Assembly of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association in Malmo, Sweden.
Until recently, he said, in France there has been no true financial responsibility of those concerned in creating medical costs, as all medical "acts" are paid for, with 100% of the population covered by the social security system, and more than 80% of all French households have complementary insurance that usually reimburses the portion of health care costs not refunded by social security.
The result of this has been health care financing deficits, which thus far the government has financed by regular and very substantial increases in employee contributions, Mr Lemoine noted, and by accounting measures such as instituting an overall budget for each hospital or, in the case of drugs, government price controls (leading to low, frozen prices) and cuts in drug reimbursement rates.
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