Are Doctors Still Making House Calls? Amazingly, They Still Do. In France, Of Course.

[PoliTalker]

"PARIS — The custom of doctors who make house calls is no relic from the past in France, but a more modern innovation.

In the summer of 1966, the doctor Marcel Lascar reported to work on a Monday and learned that one of his heart patients had died over the weekend because he couldn’t reach a physician. Lascar recalled that his bathroom had flooded one weekend and he had no trouble calling an emergency number for a repairman. Why couldn’t it work the same to reach for a doctor?

It turned out it could, and SOS Medecins was born. Today, the service boasts a network of about 1,000 full-time doctors, working through 60 regional associations and covering two thirds of the country, including the overseas departments, said Serge Smadja, the organization’s general secretary. More than 4 million calls per year yield some 2.5 million home visits by general practitioners who treat non-life-threatening illnesses ranging from high fevers to bronchitis, gastric pain to depression.

The doctors carry stethoscopes, but EKG machines, diagnostic equipment for urine samples or blood tests, and even vaccines are also part of the doctors’ wide-ranging arsenal.

In the complex web of French medical bureaucracy, door-to-door service seems straightforward. The cost is slightly more than the standard 22 euros for an office visit and it is reimbursed under the country’s universal health insurance plan. Smadja said patients widely use but don’t abuse the privilege because for most people, "it’s not fun for them to see a doctor.”"

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Why French doctors still make house calls

Ya know? That makes so much more sense! Why should sick people go out in public and travel to a waiting room full of diseases, (and the travel itself could worsen their condition,) when the able-bodied doctor could also actually use transportation and go visit the sick person where they are?

We really gotta rethink the way we do medical care.

[PoliTalker]

In France, both parents get paid time off when having a new baby.

And somebody from the government comes and knocks on your door and tells you: "I am from the government and I am here to help you."

And then they do your laundry.

No joke!

They have government nanny service for new parents, along with getting your full pay for the time off.

They can do that in France because in France the government fears the people.

We can't do that in the USA because in America the people fear the government.

Well, sort of.

Conservatives do.