The French healthcare system can be described as the synergy of national health insurance and the principles of liberal medicine, a feature of the French healthcare system which embraces liberal views between patients and doctors. The merger of the latter with the French health reform of Sécurité Sociale, the French form of social security, and statutory health insurance throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, created a health system fundamentally structured according to the Bismarckian ideas that parallel trends in government-controlled socialist medicine. The fundamental philosophies that drive the French health system are based on their ideal synthesis of solidarity, liberalism and pluralism (Rodwin, Le Pen 2259). These ideas create the policy framework for medicine to be practiced autonomously and for its regression from privatization in competing markets. The structural component of France's health policy and regulatory affairs represents a decentralized flow and administered at regional, local and commune levels. At the national level, parliament reviews provisions regarding income, benefits and regulations and directs its initiatives to the Ministry of Health. This information is transmitted to the National Governance Council of Regional Health Agencies, which then disperses to various agencies at the regional level. Similar to the flow of power in the United States within government and its many agencies that follow policies and directives, a myriad of agencies exist to enable health policy transparency between the national and regional levels of France. The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a joint effort with the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Stat...... middle of paper ...... cost containment. Convergence toward state-managed care demonstrates great flexibility between patients and their “preferred doctor.” Even though privileged doctors retain their control responsibilities, direct access is still granted to certain specialists, with children under 16 completely exempt from the control rule (Chevreul et al. 182). Access to care is complete since French national health insurance grants direct access to providers. Approximately two-thirds of practicing healthcare professionals are independent fee-for-service providers (Chevreul et al. 112). In addition to fee-for-service providers, health care is provided by private for-profit hospitals, private nonprofit hospitals, public hospitals, and acute care hospitals that are financed through a linked group payment to disease (DRG). system.