France on Meds

I am healthy at the moment. Thank you to the 5 drugs the doctor gave me? Yes, 5. I had a cold forever, and went to the doctor. He gave me 3 medications to take. 2 weeks later, the cough was still present and I was given 2 different medications to take. I have never been so heavily medication for a cold in Canada.

Point of the post being: I now know why!

France does not have a National health system. It is all done by a health insurance system, were the patient has freedom to choose where to get treated. Since the patient has this choice, creating competition between doctors. To satisfy patients, the doctors give them prescriptions. This also prevents them from consulting other doctors. The result of this competition though, is that patients in France consume twice as much meds as people in other European countries!

So, French people are consuming way more meds than would be considered necessary elsewhere. While this may satisfy French patients, since people psychologically think they must be getting better when they are instructed to pop pills, it makes me uneasy. It makes me uncomfortable to go to a doctor, knowing they may be prescribing me drugs as a personal business move, and not for my health!