Word: frenchness
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France's state-run health insurance scheme reimburses 60% to 70% of most medical bills. The remaining costs are assumed by the patient. More than 90% of French citizens pay for supplementary health insurance to cover these costs - mostly from state-run providers called mutuals. But those who can afford it are increasingly abandoning mutuals in favor of private insurance. For most ailments, that makes little difference: 80% of France's general practitioners work under a regime that caps how much they can charge. But the reverse is true for specialists and surgeons - 80% of them set their own fees...
...last year's top-grossing film, The Dark Knight, either. That's Pixar for you. Unlike its rival, DreamWorks, the studio doesn't sell its movies with star voices. And the films' plots? At a typical Hollywood pitch meeting, the story of a rat let loose in a French restaurant (Ratatouille, 2007) or a lonely robot trash collector (last year's WALL-E) or, this time, a cranky old guy who won't leave his house would be greeted by stony silence. Even the crickets would walk out. Somehow, though, people know that a Pixar movie is worth seeing, worth...
...Scientology officials in France have denied the allegations, saying the two women - like all Scientology members - were free to participate in or walk away from treatment and other church activities as they pleased. They and their lawyers also point to what they say is a history of official French hostility to their movement - including its inclusion in a 1996 government list of dangerous cults. As contrast to the organization's ostracism in France, Scientology leaders note that their church has the same status as a legitimate religion in Spain, Slovenia and Hungary as it has in the U.S. and Canada...
...Though allegations that Scientology bleeds members dry is neither new nor limited to France, some outside observers may agree with Gounord's claims of French intolerance toward religion. France's 1996 list of dangerous cults, for example, contains 172 groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, the Worldwide Church of God, the Unification Church and even transcendental meditationists - all of whom have largely shed their cult status...
...flawed, so is the content. The Parliament is often seen as a retirement home for washed-up national politicians. Its debates often drift towards a pomposity that is only amplified by translation into 23 official languages. The body's monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg, a nonsensical legacy of French pride, merely reinforces suspicions that MEPs spend lots of money to scant effect. (Read: "Brussels Beats Up On Bulgaria...