French Polynesia
January 22, 2010 — ipnadm-in
French Polynesia has reached a relatively high level of health and socioeconomic development, with 13% of GDP currently being spent on health. Much of this is underpinned by financial transfers from France (35% of GDP).
The main barrier to good healthcare is the fact that geographical: because French Polynesia is spread across 125 islands, over vast spreads of ocean, and because almost 70% of the population live on Tahiti, access to similar levels of health care are difficult on the more remote islands.
Furthermore, everything has to be imported into Polynesia including pharmaceuticals. The fact that these attract some of the highest tariffs in the world (15%) is a great burden on the sick.
