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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
This movie, with its hints of Metamorphosis and Maya Deren, probably will stand as one of the best of the last ten years. Of course it has a deeply economic theme: how much of the value of life stems from our ability to trade, and how much from our ability to play games of pure coordination? Plus the French health care system is so good that all the nurses are beautiful and pay infinite attention to a single patient, or maybe that is just how French movies are made.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 11, 2008 at 06:55 AM in Film | Permalink
Comments
Plus the French health care system is so good that all the nurses are beautiful
Finally, a health care plan I can support wholeheartedly.
Posted by: Constant at Jan 11, 2008 9:41:33 AM
The French nurses may be beautiful, but here's the shocking truth about the quality of care they and their colleagues provide:
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=640980
It's interesting that Romney and Guiliani mock the French system whenever possible.
Posted by: A student of economics at Jan 11, 2008 9:51:20 AM
I do not really see the deeply economic theme in either the book or the film, but then again, I tend not to see markets in everything. And the most recent study on preventable deaths is also significant evidence in favor of the French health care system:
http://www.medhumanities.org/2008/01/on-preventable.html
Posted by: Daniel Goldberg at Jan 11, 2008 12:07:03 PM
I went to those sites, but can find no detail.
I found it odd the average gain in those years was 16% for everyone else, but 4% for us. I would like to see what they consider to be an "amenable" death.
Posted by: Tom at Jan 11, 2008 1:30:54 PM
It's not odd at all if you consider that only about 1-2% of U.S. health care resources are expended on prevcentive medicine and public health measures. Most other industrialized countries understand quite well that the quickest way to improve population health is to focus on the latter; in some sense, this is the entire mission of the WHO. But preventive medicine and public health are not supported in the U.S. because (1) there's little opportunity for profit in such activities, and (2) it does not cohere well with the atomistic, individualistic American political culture. The entire point of such measures is that you do not see the sick person in front of you, and that does not engender the kind of support and resources acute care does. As such, it is entirely unsurprising that so many other health care systems outperform ours on preventable deaths.
The unconscionable rate of medical error in the U.S. is probably also a factor.
Posted by: Daniel Goldberg at Jan 11, 2008 2:26:44 PM
There are plenty of ways to profit from preventative medicine. For starters, insurance companies could offer significant financial incentives (if they were allowed to do so; I don't believe they are in most states) to people who got regularly scheduled checkups and stayed in good health. Although its been a while since I've been to Europe, I'd say the USA has much more preventative-style medicine (in terms of health food alternatives, supplements, and gyms) than Europe does, its just that many Americans don't choose to use what is available.
As for medical mistakes on the job, I'd bet a good amount of money that is due to the very long work hours many residents, nurses and doctors put it. I'm sure the additional time and money required to become a licensed health care practitioner in the USA has a lot to do with that, but there are probably good reasons those markets aren't clearing.
All-in-all I think much of Europe's centrally-planned health care system is better than America's centrally-placed health care system. That really doesn't surprise me, given the size difference of the countries involved.
Posted by: G at Jan 11, 2008 5:34:27 PM
Didn't hundreds (if not thousands) of elderly French people die in the capital during a heat wave? Just wondering.
Posted by: Freddy at Jan 12, 2008 2:52:12 PM
^^ nice blog!! ^@^
Posted by: ra at Mar 17, 2009 11:32:15 PM
