The US health system is purpose-designed to enrich third-party insurance companies, and is riddled with perverse incentives. Meanwhile, US citizens are far more unhealthy than the typical European (the British excepted, as they’re becoming increasingly porky with every passing year). So this double-whammy means that US healthcare is abysmal unless you’re wealthy. Europeans have this mad idea that companies shouldn’t profit from other people’s sicknesses, and so their costs are far lower while the services they provide, especially in France, are generally just as good as in the USA.

But of course, the USA has freedom and democracy and doesn’t have to suffer from socialized medicine. I wonder where the French hide all those death panels the Republican Party keeps pretending are the inevitable consequence of a non-profit-oriented approach to looking after people….?