France counts cost of health reform

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have taken to the streets of Paris to protest against government plans to cut back on a health service which has a projected overspend this year of eight billion pounds. The other day, an American friend, recently returned to live again in Paris, e-mailed from her sick bed.

“This is why I like France,” she wrote. “I have bronchitis and the doctor has just been to see me in my own home.

“He stayed long enough to examine me thoroughly and carefully, prescribe some drugs, drink two vodkas, eat pistachios by the fistful, and then chat about his days as a young doctor on an ashram in India. And all paid for by the state!”