I had a relative who once had a serious emergent heart problem (not a heart attack) in Italy. Ambulance to the ER, admitted to hospital for several days, ran a gazillion tests and procedures; huge workup. Was billed because no national insurance.
Grand total: €200. Not even worth trying to claim on American insurance.
It’s what you get in civilized societies. Really the US is so far behind it gets overmaken by a bunch of what they consider 3rd world countries, while those countries have a war going on.
It does seem to be a bit of a toss-up between countries whether or not you will actually get charged. Supposedly international visitors to the UK are supposed to get charged but no one seems to know how to actually bill anyone, so it never happens. Weirdly the government doesn’t seem all that interested in fixing it either, so it kind of just exists as a pseudo international free healthcare service.
I would think that giving people care doesn’t actually cost much, it’s having the capability that’s expensive. And the administrative work required to deal with the edge case of charging foreigners might not be worth the minor sums involved.
I had a relative who once had a serious emergent heart problem (not a heart attack) in Italy. Ambulance to the ER, admitted to hospital for several days, ran a gazillion tests and procedures; huge workup. Was billed because no national insurance.
Grand total: €200. Not even worth trying to claim on American insurance.
It’s what you get in civilized societies. Really the US is so far behind it gets overmaken by a bunch of what they consider 3rd world countries, while those countries have a war going on.
It does seem to be a bit of a toss-up between countries whether or not you will actually get charged. Supposedly international visitors to the UK are supposed to get charged but no one seems to know how to actually bill anyone, so it never happens. Weirdly the government doesn’t seem all that interested in fixing it either, so it kind of just exists as a pseudo international free healthcare service.
I would think that giving people care doesn’t actually cost much, it’s having the capability that’s expensive. And the administrative work required to deal with the edge case of charging foreigners might not be worth the minor sums involved.