Health Care Factoids from T.R. Reid

I'm reading Reid's book on health care systems in different countries.  From his chapter on France, a few factoids which struck me:

• a French doctor did the first joint replacement back in 1892 (a shoulder joint)
• French doctors are unionized, low paid, but have no student loans and minimal charges for malpractice insurance
• the French use a smart card to carry the person's health records.  (Dallas Smith--who once worked for ASCS/FSA in tobacco and peanuts and pioneered the smart card for peanuts--is probably somewhere saying "I told you so").