As the title said, I traveled to America to take care of my dad for a week or so. I fucked up bad and didn’t get travelers insurance.
Now I’m feeling really, really, really bad, and I’m starting to think it’s not a flu or covid or anything that I can just wait out. Long story short I had a health problem a few months ago, went to doctor, got it treated, but I feel like it might be back. Or maybe it’s something else, I don’t know.
What are my options? Do I just go to doctor and pray he doesn’t ask for MRI or something, which as far as I know will just bankrupt me?
UPDATE: followed advice to go to urgent care, they think it’s gall bladder. Going to hospital now, can’t risk trip to Japan unfortunately.
22 comments
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If you need care go to the hospital. When you get the bill talk to the billing department over the phone and explain your situation. You can negotiate what you pay and many time they are happy taking whatever they can get because many people here in the US never pay the bill and the hospital eats the loss. I had a bill that was 4000 for emergency room and test. I ended up paying 1900.
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Look up to see if there are any free clinics in your area, sometimes there will be ones for people without insurance where they will do an exam for a flat fee
Go to an urgent care. It is much cheaper, usually about $100 a visit.
Sorry to hear that. If you have Japanese health insurance they will reimburse some of it when you get back. They will try to match the cost to the equivalent japanese medical service though, so you can expect a lot less that get reimbursed.
Another one, do you have Japanese credit card? Some cc offers automatic travel insurance when traveling abroad, but some needs you to use the cc for the payment of plane ticket or transport. While the gold class and above offer true automatic overseas travel insurance. Check with your cc info.
Keep the receipts, you can get some money back from NHI when you get back.
This reminds me why I’m in no rush to move back
bro we don’t want you to die. Go get care and figure it out later.
If it’s not contagious, you better return to Japan ASAP to get treated if you can’t afford the ridiculous bills in America.
One way ticket to Japan is $500. One minute in hospital in America is $500.
SLPT: They can’t refuse your care. Go to the ER and “forget your wallet” and give fake info.
Did you buy your ticket on a credit card? You automatically have some travel insurance there. Call the CC company to get the details.
Get nomad insurance now, before you go to the hospital
get the medical care you need and.. never go back?
I would check urgent care first. Sometimes you think it is life threatening and the doctor is like, “meh” you will be ok, or “let’s monitor this”. Of course, we don’t know your situation.
If you get medical treatment, it doesn’t necessarily bankrupt you. I had emergencies in 3 countries (US, Singapore, PH) and each time they were manageable out of pocket. In the case of the US, I ended up in ER and it cost around $800 which they then reduced to $400 if I could pay in one shot by X date.
Note: Your Japanese health insurance will cover you to an extent, however, you will have to fill out a form and I want to say the doctor may need to sign something, so make sure you get that form and get that done before you leave.
Anything non-contagious that can wait – get on the plane and come back for care. Good luck.
Reminder that travel insurance is stupidly cheap, and you can even get it right in the airport.
🤷🏻♀️ everything in America will bankrupt you sadly.
RIP your bank account.
Bro honestly if you dont plan on living in the US, just go to urgent care and then if necessary hospital. When they mail you the bill ignore it and never pay it.
After 7 years it gets dropped/forgotten, and you’re not even living in the country so they cant do anything to you.
The US medical system is a racket and many poor people just never pay the bills because it’s so ridiculous, which makes the problem worse because that raises healthcare prices. It’s a cycle that will never get solved because dems and republicans will never agree on how to fix it.
It’s a little known secret here that you don’t actually have to pay the hospital bills. People complain about the cost a lot but forget this fact.
Just do what I did: plan never to live permanently in the US again and say “lol get fukt” to the medical debt.