The Rest of the Story

Moore: The French health care system is attuned to patient needs.

Reality: The French government condemned the health care system for contributing to patient deaths during the 2003 heat wave.

Moore presents medical care received from the French health care system as not only "free of charge", but also more responsive to patient needs than the American system. Indeed, with one phone call, a doctor will jump into a specially equipped medical van and drive to your house, saving sick patients the trouble of visiting a physician's office.

Moore must have an awfully short memory.  In August of 2003, a heat wave swept across Europe killing an estimated 15,000 people in France alone.  In a country where residential air conditioning is uncommon, many elderly people could not cope with two weeks of temperatures reaching 100 degrees or more.  Worse yet, the health care system could not cope with the medical problems caused by excessive heat. 

The public health authorities were too slow to grasp the serious nature of problems in emergency rooms and hospitals.  Both were swamped.  Staffing levels were critically short and many patients needing care had to be turned away.  It is unknown how many people died because they could not get care in a hospital.  What is known is that 42 percent of the heat-related deaths actually occurred in the hospitals, while another 15 percent occurred in nursing homes.

A French government report partly blamed the health care system for contributing to the deaths by allowing doctors and nurses to leave for the long August vacations (referenced in the movie) during a critical period.

Unprecedented heat-related deaths during the 2003 heat wave in Paris: consequences on emergency departments:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=420061

Heat wave-related deaths in France now estimated at 15,000:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2003/09/09/heatwave030909.html