i don't trust or waste my time by waiting for a doctor; all he/she tells me is to keep doing what i'm doing. i use natural ways of healing. as soon as i get sniffles or cough, i drink grapefruit juice and tea, which seem to make the cold last shorter. i used to know qigong (chi-kung, similar to taichi) but i forgot most of it; it also helped remove all the bad qi/chi from my body and helped me recover faster. btw, did you watch on fringe that these CDC scientists were being murdered with with giant versions of the common cold? they were like giant slugs that grew in people's stomachs and came out of their mouths--it was AWESOME.

Here in Italy our Constitution specifies that everyone has the right to health and medical care, and this right is extended to foreigners being in Italy too. There are hospitals depending on money given by the government (ok, every Health Minister reduces founds, but they're still there) as well as private clinics; also, many doctors have they're own private surgery and are payed a lot, but the law forces doctors to take up their career in public OR in private health system. Public hospitals are free and display all sorts of medical care, from dentist check up to prgans transplant and so on; you only have to pay a ticket (about € 20 if I remember correctly) if your problem's not a first-aid emergency, and have to queue a bit for some particular operations or treatments (ok, you can even wait some months for certain transplants). Obviously there are problems such as lack of appropriate structures or medicines, and the newest technological treatments are not displayed. If you have money enough, you may probably choose a private clininc or surgery; the important point anyway is that anybody, no matter how rich/poor he his, can get the best medical care publically displayed.