French bureaucracy is infamous, and yet healthcare here is much more accessible and cheaper (duh) than it is in the States. My co-pays have always been a fraction of what they are in the States, even before I had a Carte Vitale or a French social security number. I'm sure this has been said, but women's healthcare in France makes American women's healthcare look dystopian. Birth control is available, cheap, and pharmacists are willing to help us out in moments of desperation, even if we don't have a perscription on hand (!!!). It's quite something to live in a country where the state doesn't perceive my body as its enemy.