Has anyone lived in both the US and France? If so, how does the healthcare system compare? Can you buy brand name meds in France?

I wasn't aware that the USA really had a healthcare 'system' except to say that you need very good insurance or lots of money in the USA.  Many years ago my daughter was studying at university in France. When she had an urgent medical problem the public health service looked after her at least as well as she would have been looked after by the NHS at home in England.

Both France and the USA have first-rate medical care.  The debate about "healthcare" concerns how to pay for it.

If you are asking about over the counter medications then all the ones available in the USA are available in France, BUT the brand names are often different. Some medications that require a prescription in the USA - such as ones containing codeine - can be bought w/o a prescription in Europe and most of the rest of the world.   

In France, the pharmacists are forced to give us generic* medications, instead of the real brands. That is because they are less expensive. If they don't do it, so the healthcare could may not reimburse us.

However if the doctor writes on the prescription: '' Can't be replaced by a generic '', so the pharmacist will give the real brand and the healthcare will reimburse without problem.

Otherwise be careful: Some French medications ( the same than the US ones), could to have a different dosage than the American ones!

Important to read on the boxes about it. You also can ask your doctor or pharmacist before to come in France.

Then I would say that like in America, we can buy some medications without a prescription: Ibuprofen, some cough syrups, etc.. 

For some others, it's impossible: You NEED to go see a doctor.

* A generic drug ( Un médicament générique) in France, is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance than the original one. Only the name change and it is supposed to have the same power as the no generic  medication.

I have twice gotten medical treatment in France. Yes, of course you can buy brand name meds and over the counter med. The pharmacists in France have more power to give some medicines without a prescription from a doctor. On my two visits to a doctor, I was treated promptly with no waiting, and charged a minimal fee. I was also staying in a house where someone had an injury. A nurse came out every day to change his dressing.  The daughter of a friend fell and broke her leg on the last day of her study abroad program in Paris this August. It was a very bad break, and she was hospitalized for a few days and the bone set. The bill was a fraction of what it would have been in the US. They have a two-tier program- everyone has access to healthcare, but people can still pay for insurance that gets them some perks- better hospital rooms, for example. France has the lowest rate of preventable deaths in the world, so the system must be pretty good. 

I have not. But I do know that their public hospitals are deep in debt and that doctor visits have patient co pays.

How bout u go to France and find out