Managed care in France. How what has happened in America can sweep France unless you understand why it happened and change.

In this paper, I have summarized the background behind the reform of general health care in the United States, the history behind and of managed care and why it developed as it has. I then discuss what managed care is. To do this I define it as a method of providing care, financing care and controlling the cost of care. I then discuss what managed care, as an intermediary of the purchasers of care, that is, government and businesses, wants, in terms of patient care, satisfaction, quality and cost. Finally, I discuss the ways you can "manage care" yourselves and what is needed to do this. (C) 1999 Elsevier, Paris.