Health policy in France
Résumé
This chapter analyses the institutional transformation of the French healthcare system at the end of the 20th century, in relation with the agenda setting of cost containment policies since the 1980s and the role played by a programmatic group of senior civil servants in the formulation and adoption of reforms strengthening the regulatory role of the state (from 1996 to 2009). The second part presents the main developments of French health policies in the 21st century, increasingly focused on healthcare coverage and medical provision issues, in a context of new crises (especially the “medical deserts” crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic). It highlights the progressive shift from a Bismarckian health insurance system to a more Beveridgean one and from a centralized healthcare system to a more territorialized one.