It’s apparently a huge controversy. My Parisian doctor was telling me about it the other day. You see, this is the land of “socialized medicine,” and it’s gotten so expensive for the government to support that whole single-payer thing that the French govt. is now having to raise the prices for consumers. And boy are people hopping mad. They’re talking about raising the price you have to pay for a one night hospital stay by 25%.

Yup.

A night in a French hospital is going to go up from $23.50 a night to $29.40 a night.

The French are also saying that there’s such a HUGE deficit – because all of that communist fascist medicine is just too costly – that the state may have to cut the rate at which it reimburses private citizens for the aspirin they buy over the counter. Yes, the state currently reimburses Frenchmen 35% of the cost of… aspirin. Because of the “deficit,” the reimbursement may have to go down to 15%.

So, when things are going “badly” in the land of socialized medicine, when they have to cut back because government-paid health care has just gotten too expensive, a hospital stay is still cheaper than the cheapest, sleaziest, low-rent hotel.

Still think we’re number one?