Well for one thing, in America, you gotta get back to work.

Work a manual labor job or one where you're on your feet all day and sprained your ankle? Would you rather miss a week of pay (or worse lose your job) or take some pain killers and work through it?

Yeah I think this is the biggest difference. Here in Sweden if I get a headache that's bad enough I'll just take a sick day and there's not really much social stigma about that kind of behaviour unless it becomes a pattern that you don't seek medical help for.

I work in an office, but Swedish law protects blue- and white-collared jobs the same in this regard.