Not always "idyllic"

I've never gotten sick while traveling (knock on wood!), so here's an anecdote about someone else:

Last year a family friend went on a study abroad trip to France. One weekend she decided to go horseback riding with some classmates. Long story short, she was thrown from her horse, and broke her leg.

Perhaps a native French person would have had an easier time of it, but my friend's parents had to jump through a lot of hoops to get treatment for her. First, there was a major language barrier. None of the hospital staff spoke Mandarin. When they tried to negotiate matters in English, the staff was even less accomodating. My friend did end up going into surgery in France, her family had to pay a huge sum, and she eventually flew back to the States to receive physical therapy here.

...Not quite the speedy, no-hassles-involved story that SICKO liked to portray. But then again, like I said before, my friend is not native to France, and her medical problem wasn't simple, so the whole process being quite complicated for her is not all that shocking.

In Asia I suppose it's a bit different because aside from the health care system, there are also traditional herbalists, who are considered in almost as high regard as physicians who practice Western medicine. Oftentimes there are longer lines and more crowded waiting rooms outside the OMD's offices; that's how popular they are. They are also more accessible. When both my parents came down with food poisoning in Taipei, we went to see an OMD, who simply took a physical, ground up some funky-looking roots and herbs, and sent us on our way. The whole process took maybe 40 minutes, and the only fee paid was for the medicine, which wasn't even expensive to begin with.