An American in Provence

A few weeks ago, I was feeling poorly. I had a bad all day long headache, a very sore throat, feeling a bit feverish, etc. I decided to take a sick day and go to the doctor. I called in that morning and was told I would need to bring in a note from the doctor to excuse my absense, otherwise it would be considered unexcused. Okay, fine. I went to a different doctor than my regular doctor, who is closed on Wednesdays. The doctor asked how long I would like to be on sick leave, and I told him "Just today is fine". He wrote me some prescriptions (infection of the throat due to allergies), I paid him the 21€ consultation fee (which I guess I will later get most of it back from the health system) bought my medicines, and went on my not quite so merry way. The next day, I went in to work and proudly presented the note from the doctor. All is fine and dandy until I receive my pay for this month.
(interjection- I am not complaining about MY workplace. From what I understand, all of France is like this. Therefore, I am just explaining to you the system in general).
Yep. One day less of pay. Argh. Thank goodness I didn't take the doctor up on his offer of two or more days.
Lesson learned.
I guess if you are sick for more than three days, the health care system will pay your salary. (but I don't know if it is the full percentage or not, so I am not willing to experiment just to find out.)
But I prefer the American sick leave system- you earn two days or so per month which you store up and then use when you need them- 2 days for a cold there, 3 days for a flu here, half a day to go to a doctor. Because really, if you know you will loose pay for being absent, you are a lot more likely to go to work, be unproductive because you are sick and miserable, and therefore get everyone else sick.
Now, I am not making a judgement on the American vs. French health care systems. I (thankfully) have not seen enough of either to really have an informed opinion, though actually I think they both have their pros and cons and are therefore probably about even, it just depends on what you need from the health care system.
Anyway, back to work.