Towards a global agenda on health security

Abstract

On Oct 6, 2015, France commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Social Security Acts, one of the founding keystones of the social model inspired by the National Council of the Resistance. Achieving universal health coverage in France: policy reforms and the challenge of inequalitiesSince 1945, the provision of health care in France has been grounded in a social conception promoting universalism and equality. The French health-care system is based on compulsory social insurance funded by social contributions, co-administered by workers' and employers' organisations under State control and driven by highly redistributive financial transfers. This system is described frequently as the French model. In this paper, the first in The Lancet's Series on France, we challenge conventional wisdom about health care in France. Full-Text PDF State humanitarian verticalism versus universal health coverage: a century of French international health assistance revisitedThe French contribution to global public health over the past two centuries has been marked by a fundamental tension between two approaches: State-provided universal free health care and what we propose to call State humanitarian verticalism. Both approaches have historical roots in French colonialism and have led to successes and failures that continue until the present day. In this paper, the second in The Lancet's Series on France, we look at how this tension has evolved. During the French colonial period (1890s to 1950s), the Indigenous Medical Assistance structure was supposed to bring metropolitan France's model of universal and free public health care to the colonies, and French State imperial humanitarianism crystallised in vertical programmes inspired by Louis Pasteur, while vying with early private humanitarian activism in health represented by Albert Schweitzer. Full-Text PDF France: a philosophy for healthThe dominance of English as the language of science and, increasingly, global health too often closes the door on the history and experiences of others. In France's case, careful study of the nation's struggle to achieve universal health coverage, together with its distinctive approach to global health, has much to offer those who seek to understand the diversity of paths to achieve better health at home and abroad. The two Lancet Series papers1,2 on France's contribution to health, along with four comments from French or Francophone leaders,3–6 aim to correct this imbalance in the English-language literature on health. Full-Text PDF