"Money Wasted for Nothing": More Reasons for Clueless Yanks to Emulate Europe's Social Models and Its Health Care Systems

After being told by the National Health Service in April 2007 that he had cancer and only six months to live, we learn from Virginie Malingre in Le Monde, a 59-year-old Englishman bought a motorcycle, offered a car to his wife, quit his job, and emptied his retirement fund.

Yet, after celebrating "the final Christmas", "the final dinners", and "the final Spring" with his wife Isabel, the Dorset native remained very much alive and over two years later (at age 59), he is still with us — for the simple reason that what the NHS diagnosed as a cancer was a harmless abscess.

So, is Philip Collins a happy man? Well, yes, apart from the fact that he is ruined and that the (unnecessary) medicine he's taken (steroids, etc) have reduced him to a human wreck…

One Le Monde reader testifies that "the real problem of the English medical system is the bureaucracy and the lack of choice" while another points out (to a third reader who offered the rather facile judgment that Philip Collins should have asked for a second opinion) that "the system does not allow for a second opinion (unless it is at one's own expense and that is onerous!)" and while a fourth states that "the hospitals are in a terrible shape" and "the doctors only do the strict minimum"…

One final Le Monde reader bears quoting: Richard adds that he knows an Englishman with Alzheimer's, except he will not be given medicine by the "completely rotten" British system until he is in the terminal stage. "Before, no, it would [only] be for comfort's sake and would be money wasted for nothing." Richard adds: "After the age of 70, you no longer undergo dialysis, so you can go croak".

(Surprisingly, this reader, whom American conservatives would be wont to sympathize with, has a strange conclusion: "Gallant Frenchmen … instead of crying over euthanasia, we would do better to have it legalized.")

pas parfait le système britannique, il est complètement pourri.Je connais un anglais qui "devrait" être atteint de l'alhzeimer, seulement on ne lui donnera les médicaments que lorsqu'il en sera au stade terminal. Avant,non, ce serait du comfort et de l'argent gâché pour rien. A partir de 70 ans, on ne vous dialyse plus, donc vous pouvez crever, c'est ça braves français que vous vouler à terme pour la France, donc au lieu de pleurnicher sur l'euthanasie,on ferait mieux de la légaliser.

Mac's Mind has many more examples from the British press (cheers to Larwyn)…

In related news, a couple of Le Parisien fillers from June 5 teach us that a Jean-Pierre was denied unemployment benefits because the 60-year-old Frenchman on the lam was earning 3,40 Euros over the acceptable limit; while Nénette is the happy beneficiary of a daily welfare allocation of .06 Euros (6 cents) for the coming six months.