Technology in France.
The author describes how France has attempted to reconcile its ethos of optimum health care for all with a belief in free enterprise, with increasing medical costs and complex technological innovations, and with a traditional distrust of widespread regulation. Effective oversight of the diffusion of technology is further hampered by the shared responsibilities of several government agencies. Although France has enacted a fee schedule for physicians, created national procedures for evaluating equipment, and exercised some control over hospitals, the general sentiment is anti-bureaucratic and third-party insurers will most likely play an important role in limiting the diffusion of technology in the future.
D003142:Communication; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005602:France; D006291:Health Policy; D006761:Hospitals; D012943:Social Security; D013675:Technology, High-Cost