Despite the prospect of an expensive two-week hospital stay, Aloy, 58, did not worry. France's national health insurance, supplemented by a private policy for co-payments, covered the entire bill -- from doctor's fees to medication to a private room with a view -- and Aloy would not even know the total.
"All I have to do is fill out some papers and send them off to the insurance company," he said during a smoke break on a sunny terrace in front of the hospital two days after the surgery.
France has long been proud of its national health insurance, part of a many-tentacled and costly social protection system designed to embrace almost everyone who is legally in the country. Most French people have grown up with the idea that the government is the ultimate guarantor of health care, even for people who cannot afford to pay. The concept has become so ingrained over the past half-century that it is an untouchable part of the political landscape, making the debate over President Obama's proposals in Washington and the fading chances for a public option seem, in the words of the newspaper Le Monde, "altogether surreal." ...
...But despite the drawbacks, the outcome is relatively cost-effective in comparison with the situations in other industrialized nations, according to tracking by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
...Spending less apparently has not lowered the quality of health care. Despite their reputation for guzzling red wine and eating fatty cheese, French people have for years enjoyed a longer life expectancy than their counterparts in the United States, currently at 80.98 years compared with 78.11.
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