Vietnamese all get free medical care in Vietnam, as Australians do in Australia and Brits do in UK. But travellers don't necessarily - it depends on whether their country of origin has reciprocal arrangements with the country where they need treatment. Sunny gets free medical care in VN but if she ever gets sick on one of her holidays in Australia we'll have to pay for treatment, repatriation, etc - and the same thing in reverse applies to me and all other foreigners here in Vietnam. Which in my case could become a major problem because I can't get reasonable travel insurance since turning 80 - although I must admit that it won't matter if I get terminally ill because there's no point in my being repatriated to Australia when my only family is here in Vietnam! (sister and family are still in Sth Africa but sister's got dementia and can't remember that she's got a brother, so no point my going there anymore...).
Btw, you probably remember me getting sick in Chester on our 2012 holiday - I went to Chester hospital and they gave me some tests and medications and travel insurers told me to go back to Australia immediately or they wouldn't pay anything - I wasn't even able to visit my cousins near Norwich as planned. So we flew directly back to Australia and also didn't visit sister and family in Sth Africa as planned, then went to the local emergency ward in Sydney where they did some tests and told me that Chester had mis-diagnosed the infection and given me the wrong antibiotics, which had just made everything worse instead of better! So free medical treatment ain't always as good as it's cracked up to be!!! 

G'day all!
Just want to let everyone know that my wife Linh's facebook account has been hacked and some ratbag is trying to con her contacts into "lending" them some money in the false belief that it's Linh calling them. Please be assured that neither I nor Linh would EVER try and borrow or ask for money from anyone except the bank - and even then we'd think twice about it!
Cheers
Scouse/Martin/MR

Much as I liked and enjoyed VN on our visit dont think I could live there too set in my "british pipe and slippers way" ! Besides living down here in cosy Cornwall suits me. Take care all

The world seems to have got into a right old mess. Conflicts all over N. Africa, Garza and Israel, Ukraine and Russia, 2 old men vying to be President of USA, 1 a complete wing nut (Trump) the other does not know what time of day it is. UK politicians behaving like a bunch of school children, European countries trying to come to a combined agreement on how to support Ukraine. I could go on for a lot longer. I am perhaps being selfish now but at my age I am coming to the conclusion that I dont give a rats arse sure in my pensions and home. My rant for the day over !!

Thanks Lee - very illuminating! I'll supply beer on behalf of myself and Terry (Terry please note!) if we make it to Oz and SA on the planned June/July trip. But if it's too cold we'll head north (Brisbane and Cairns) and leave south for next Tet (early 2025).