Paul Dutton is a Historian of European Social Welfare and current Fellow of The Woodrow Wilson Center

French and American concerns with the quality and equity of healthcare spring from a common source, the revolutionary origins of both countries. The same values of individual choice and collective security underlie the strategies each has adopted. Yet since the end of World War II French and American healthcare strategies have diverged; with France now considered to offer the world's best care. Paul Dutton examines the gap and explains its implications.