ezra klein has a very interesting discussion about the outcomes of the french health insurance system versus the us system.
yes, but are we better? right, you say, that's all very not interesting. but how do we stack up with france? better? worse?
yeah, the second one. france's health care system bodyslams us on most every metric. beyond the beds per 1,000 stat mentioned above, france has more doctors per 1,000 people (3.3 vs. 2.4), spends way less, has 3.2 more physician visits per capita (6 in france vs. 2.8 in america, which probably accounts for the better preventive care in france), has a much higher hospital admission rate, and beats us handily on the most important measure: potential years of life lost. american women lose 3,836 years per 100,000, while american men give up 6,648 in the same sample size (yes, we get screwed). in france, the comparable numbers are 2,588 years for the women and 5,610 for the men. still not great, but quite a bit better.
so france spends less, gets more, and does so through a public-private hybrid that's heavily, heavily public. socialized medicine sure is scary.