Compare and contrast

American with America's great private health care:

Before Napientek was wheeled into an operating room Oct. 27, his doctor obtained a preauthorization number. The surgery went well, and within weeks Napientek was feeling much better.

Until April. That's when the couple began receiving a series of letters from the insurance administrator with chilling news: Claims for the surgery had been denied, leaving them on the hook for the heart-stopping total of $148,000.

American in dirty hippie France with their awful socialized medicine:

Another woman told me that the emergency surgery, with two doctors working nearly an hour, was going to cost me a grand total of 100 euros, or 140 dollars (really only 100 dollars if the exchange rate weren't so out of whack). Added on to the basic emergency room visit and consult fee of 23 euros (32 dollars), that meant my emergency room visit and emergency room surgery came to a grand total of 172 dollars.