HEALTH CARE?

Chirac Promises Health Care Changes (JOHN LEICESTER, 8/21/03, Associated Press)

Funeral home chain OGF, which holds about a quarter of the market, said it had counted 2,600 more deaths in the first three weeks of August than in same period of last year. It estimated that figure meant that more than 10,000 people died nationwide.

On Monday, Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei said it was "plausible'' that as many as 5,000 people had died during the heat wave--the largest such government estimate until Thursday.

Health workers said one of the reasons why the death toll was so high was that families abandoned their elderly relatives alone at home while they went away for August vacations.

Chirac said the crisis had shed light "on the solitude of many of our aged or handicapped citizens'' and promised to propose measures this autumn to better care for them, although he did not say what the measures would be. [...]

Chirac called the heat wave "exceptional.'' The heat wave was the longest and hottest to ever hit France, with temperatures that topped 104. He noted that ``many fragile people died alone in their homes.''

Doctors say heat stroke and dehydration were often the cause of death.

Just what an atomized nation needs, more State. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 21, 2003 10:26 AM