Health care reforms in the French hospital system.

Abstract

The French health care system, like other health care systems, entered the 1990s in a state of flux. During the 1980s, attempts to curb health care expenditure had a limited impact with the liberal and pluralist values of the health system undermining reform strategies. In 1991 the French government introduced a new hospital reform which had four main strands: rationalizing public and private health care provision; introducing a medical logic into the hospital service; increasing hospital autonomy and strengthening participation and involvement in the hospital system. However, these reforms left untouched the financing of the health service. Consequently there remains a need for a more fundamental reform of the management and financing of the French health care system.