If Medicare might not or will not pay for a service, a doctor and patient can fill out a form called the Advance Beneficiary Notice, which states that if Medicare does not reimburse the claim, the patient will pay for the service.
In the main, they are able to concentrate on being the very best they can be and notwithstanding the vagaries of form and injury they know well in advance when they will have to perform on the public stage.
Another view is that the aim is to woo potential Lib Dem voters in advance of the coming poll, and perhaps persuade Lib Dem MPs to form a coalition or alliance with Labour afterwards in the event of a hung parliament.
The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says it is not clear what form French intervention might take, but one possibility is the use of air strikes if the rebels advance on Mopti.