The Tour de France doesn't start until July, but Americans have already opened a substantial lead over some European compatriots when it comes to dissatisfaction with their home country's health care system, according to a new Harris Interactive poll, reported in today's International Herald Tribune.

Asked to describe their overall view of their country's health care system, 33 percent of  Americans felt "the health care system has so much wrong with that we need to rebuild it," 50 percent believed there were some good things but "fundamental changes are needed to make it work better," and 12 percent said the system worked well and "only minor changes are necessary," (5 percent weren't sure).

Respondents from the five largest European countries were also dissatisfied with their health care systems, but they  weren't as ready as some Americans to throw it all away and start over. This nifty little graph from the Tribune helps illustrate the comparison:

The poll also focused on issues of cost, standards, and efforts to improve health and wellness. Some quick highlights:

• All of the countries agreed the costs of health care were rising too fast. Americans and Germans are most likely to agree (89 percent and 86 percent, respectively) that costs were rising too fast and also the least likely to feel that the standards and costs in their health care system corresponded to their needs and expectations.
• The French are reasonably content (yes, you read that right). Nearly four in 10 of the French believed only minor changes were needed to their system. Further, France was the only country where a majority of the respondents believed the standards and costs of their system lived up to their expectations.
• Health care is an issue of both shared and individual responsibility. Accompanying their dissatisfaction with their health care system, respondents identified on average five to seven steps they were taking to improve their own health and wellness. The most popular options: drinking more water and eating more fruits and vegetables. Americans were also focused on eating less fast food, while the Germans seemed far less worried about limiting their salt intake (19 percent) cutting out the snacks (15 percent) than their French neighbors (47 percent, and 62 percent respectively).