ABSTRACT
One of the primary aims of the French healthcare system is to ensure that itscitizens remain in good health. In France, people are justifiably proud that theFrench healthcare system was concluded to be the best in the world in the World Health Organization’s 2000 ranking of healthcare systems (Izmirlieva, 2004). However, this high-quality service has come at a price. Around 75 per cent of total health spending is publicly funded, and citizens have fewer out-of-pocket expenses for medical treatment and prescriptions than citizens of other major industrialized countries (ibid.). To understand how medicines are prescribed in France, and the factors important in patient compliance, it is necessary to briefly examine the background to healthcare in the country. As with other countries, the attitudes of patients, prescribers and pharmaceutical companies combined with the nature of the pricing system all play a role in the use of medicines.
