American couple held captive in Mexican hospital unless they pay bill

[ansible]

Atlanta — Help is on the way for a couple from Georgia who said they're being held hostage in a Mexican hospital. Stephen Johnson went into diabetic shock while on a Carnival cruise. Doctors in the port city of Progreso treated him, but won't let him leave.

"I still feel like a captive now because I can't leave," Johnson told CBS News from the hospital.

He and his fiancée, Tori Austin, were on the cruise when he collapsed suddenly and was in danger of dying. At the hospital in Mexico, a team of doctors, dialysis and a ventilator helped him recover. But when he tried to leave three days ago, he said the hospital became a prison.

"It was three or four of them and they just kept pushing me and I had to hold on to the rail. I was going to start swinging and throwing and punching because I was scared," Johnson said.

The hospital wanted its money first, amounting to $14,000, paid in full. Johnson had no health insurance and the hospital refused his offer to pay over time. Hospital staff physically blocked them from leaving several times, once with a trash can lid.

Donors stepped in, including movie mogul Tyler Perry. He heard about Johnson's story and agreed to settle the bill.
"I owe him my life and I hope to get to meet him when I get back to Atlanta because he deserved the biggest hug," Johnson said.

But he will have to wait because the hospital said he's not well enough to travel.

The State Department's aware of Johnson's case. It has sent an official to help out the couple. Even if Johnson had insurance, he might be in the same predicament. Many health plans providers don't cover care outside the U.S. One option often recommended is travel medical insurance.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tyler-perry-helps-american-couple-held-captive-in-mexican-hospital-2019-11-22/

[leftieNanner]

1. This is terrible!

My husband and I (in our 60s) always buy travel insurance (including health) now when we go out of the country.

Things can happen anywhere. Hope Mr. Johnson figures this out and hope his health improves.

[lunatica]

4. The hospital said he isn't well enough to travel

So they are still holding him.

[leftieNanner]

5. Very Strange, now that you mention it

If he isn't well enough to travel, then where does the "blocked the door with a trash can lid" bit come from?

This doesn't make sense.

Plus if he's not well, that means his bill is still growing.

[lunatica]

9. You're right, this story is missing something.

[Hortensis]

11. Like that almost certainly all the people he said tried to stop him

spoke English, anywhere from some to excellent, but he was so frightened he needed to swing at them. Or that in response they're keeping him officially admitted for treatment even though he can't pay because he needs it.

[lunatica]

14. It reminds me of the 1st episode of the Walking Dead.

[Hortensis]

22. Lol. I wouldn't bet it didn't bring that to the staffers' minds also.

At least he didn't try to eat them.

[lunatica]

2. LOL!

Americans everywhere represent Trump now. And people everywhere hate his ass, especially people whose children are held in cages.

[mucifer]

6. This is not about trump. Mexico and lots of impoverished nations have really

messed up medical systems that are worse than ours. We may end up like them soon tho if things don't change.

[lunatica]

8. Mexico has state of the art medical facilities.

They have cars and iPhones and computers too.

[Hortensis]

10. Yup. And have had a national healthcare system for decades.

But of course they never have all the money they need to pay for all their own citizens' needs.

[lunatica]

12. Well they have the money but the 1% gets it.

Just like here and everywhere.

[Hortensis]

17. Not an overly rich country, but yes. They're having avocado

wars down there now. Seems avocados are more profitable than pot, so the cartels want to take over. Last time I went to find out why the price of limes was through the roof, it was the same thing. Some of the limes were from farmers who were literally fighting them off in shooting battles, others from those forced to knuckle under.

[hunter]

23. Different sorts of cartels run the U.S. health care industries.

No gunfights in the orchards, but people dying and losing everything they've worked for all their lives, nevertheless.

[Hortensis]

24. Come on. People who imagine a "nevertheless" between

murderous criminal cartels and corporations who've cut themselves dysfunctionally greedy deals are lulled into silliness by the safety of a society they apparently can't imagine being without. You'd crawl long nights from Calexico to San Diego if it'd save you from cartel killers.

Those who want to reinstate the old controls on corporations that they so foolishly let go and add more that are needed should vote Democrat. That's all. Every 2 years. We did it before, we'll do it again. Just need real power, because our corporations are VERY powerful without guns.

[hunter]

29. People in the U.S.A. tend to think their own health care plans are great...

... until they discover they are not.

And by the numbers, health care in the U.S.A. isn't especially good, which it should be, considering what we pay for it. Even wealthy people in the U.S.A., people with so-called "platinum" health care plans, can suffer grotesquely inappropriate medical care.

Sometimes these platinum plan people die, as many celebrities have demonstrated, from Joan Rivers to Michael Jackson.

Pardon my hyperbole, but dead is dead and it hurts just as bad whether the county sheriff or gangsters force you out of your home.

My wife and I are currently paying $1,600 a month for health insurance. No worries, we can afford it for now, crossing our fingers until Medicare and assorted supplements, but we know by hard knocks and working as health care professionals this isn't any kind of "security."

Years ago we ran a COBRA plan out to the bitter end in the midst of chemotherapy and nearly lost our home... shit falling out of the sky. We were saved at the last minute accepted by California's "High Risk" health insurance plan.

That's why I'm a supporter of socialized medicine, or even universal health care such as they have in Canada or France.

The health care system we currently suffer in the U.S.A. sucks.

[Hortensis]

34. Yes, us too. Most people use their healthcare plans. They know what

they are, what they cost, etc. These days many people use them as little as possible, shorting their healthcare, because they're inadequate. That was us too; I paid through the nose for a couple decades of inadequate coverage that never paid out because I never approached meeting the enormous deductible. Financial devastation still occurs thanks to the Republicans but is way down since the ACA was partially implemented, companies are required to cover certain annual basics as already paid by the premiums, and quality is much better thanks to the ACA's requirements.

And don't forget, in the '90s many of the same people had better healthcare, while many others were being broken by bad, and they opposed creation of a Democratic national healthcare system after a bunch of Republican ads that warned them they'd lose their good thing. Don't blame anyone but those specific people for their stupidity, selfishness and shameful callousness. I only wish I knew how people voted then when I hear sob stories now that they're older and sicker and coverage not as good.

But we weren't talking about that, were we? This conversation is about people running up medical bills while traveling in other nations and the refusal of other nations to let them walk out without paying. Don't blame evil American corporations for that or suggest they'd machine gun down families who don't pay in the U.S. They don't. They spread the costs among all the responsible people who pay their bills.

[mucifer]

18. The majority can't afford those facilities. I am a pediatric hospice nurse

I do not hear good things about the medical system there. I know these are antidotes people are telling me. But, lots of desperate families of very sick kids come to the USA. I hear a lot about bad medical systems and the fear of drug lords. People come to my city mostly from Michoacan and Guerrero. These families are desperate to help their kids.

[mucifer]

3. I have read about this. It's growing internationally. Not allowing patients to leave when

they can't pay their bills.

[Demovictory9]

16. scary

[Hortensis]

7. Wish trying to walk out on bills was unusual. When people leave

without paying, and that happens pretty often (where's this money they can't come up with coming from after they're back in the U.S.?) , the local people have to pay.

And these days a lot of people without adequate means to properly care for themselves are able to take cruises around the Caribbean, etc.

[DFW]

13. The last time I had an operation here in Germany

When checking in to the hospital, I had to put down a hefty 4 figure deposit before they would admit me.

At the time, we had United Health Care, and they refused every claim, whether inside the USA or outside. Blue (more like "Double" ) Cross is almost the same way. German hospital bills are about a third of what they are in the USA, but American insurance refuses to cover them anyway. In the USA, if you can find an honest hospital administrator, you will find out that the hospitals and the insurance companies have some kind of weird deal where the bill gets reduced drastically if it's the hospital billing the insurance company directly. An individual can get charged up to three times as much.

Now that I'm over 65, United Health care sends me nonstop offers to join some kind of supplemental program they have to Medicare. After my previous experiences with them, I toss it all in the trash. I see no advantage in paying them money to get zero coverage. I can get zero coverage for free without their help.

[whistler162]

15. That is why you buy medical travel insurance.

[csziggy]

19. I wonder how much of the problem is the US lack of a national healthcare system

While I was in Scotland, I needed to see a doctor and the hotel advised me to go to the local A&E (emergency room). I saw a doctor, got some antibiotics and had a nice talk with the doctor. I offered to pay and he said there is no system for them to take payment direct from a patient.

If I had been from a country with a national healthcare system, the UK NHS would bill my home country. As an American, there is no system for them to bill, even though I am under Medicare, so the visit and medicine was free.

I did have travel insurance, but they did not want to deal with that for such a small matter - it would cost their system more than it was worth. All I had was an opportunistic chest infection that took advantage of a respiratory virus.

[Codeine]

20. What kind of dumbass goes on a cruise

without purchasing travel insurance?

[hunter]

31. Maybe the cruise lines should require it.

Or include it in their fares.

Ship's doctors can't handle everything. Do they even have ship's doctors anymore?

This ain't the Love Boat.

As a U.S. citizen one buys travel health insurance so the travel insurance company can duke it out with your own health insurance company and the locals so you don't get held hostage.

[TexasBushwhacker]

35. What of dumbass is a diabetic without insurance

but can afford a cruise?

[mucifer]

21. Here is an article explaining the international issue of hospitals detaining people:

The hospitals often illegally detain patients long after they should be medically discharged, using armed guards, locked doors and even chains to hold those who have not settled their accounts. Even death does not guarantee release: Kenyan hospitals and morgues are holding hundreds of bodies until families can pay their loved ones' bills, government officials say.

An Associated Press investigation has found evidence of hospital imprisonments in more than 30 countries worldwide, according to hospital records, patient lists and interviews with dozens of doctors, nurses, health academics, patients and administrators. The detentions were found in countries including the Philippines, India, China, Thailand, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Bolivia and Iran. Of more than 20 hospitals visited by the AP in Congo, only one did not detain patients.

"What's striking about this issue is that the more we look for this, the more we find it," said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "It's probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, that this affects worldwide."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hospitals-around-the-world-detain-patients-who-cannot-pay-medical-bills/

The article doesn't mention Mexico. It is from a year ago. This is horrifying.

[ripcord]

25. No health insurance

But he can afford a cruise, you have to wonder about people's priorities.

[Sanity Claws]

26. I thought the same

Also he went into diabetic shock. Did he know he was diabetic before the trip?

[Beringia]

28. Health insurance can cost $200 a month

A cruise might cost $2000. So that is 10 months worth of insurance, but maybe he takes a vacation every 10 years.

[cwydro]

32. Yeah, and now bailed out by a wealthy celebrity.

What a world.

[kimbutgar]

27. My sister got sick on a cruise we were on recently in Europe.

The cruise wanted her to go the hospital in Rome when we disembarked but thinking about the logistics of not making our flight and no help getting another flight home, and having to be back to work etc. We decided to skip the cruise ship doctors advice and I brought her home. She made it home and we got her to the doctor the next day. She had overate rich food she wasn’t used to and maybe there was also some food poisoning. But I worried that the costs would be even worst. The 3 days she spent in the cruise ship infirmary was almost $8000. An Italian man I talked to on the plane said she would have probably been treated for free but I’m not so sure that was true so I took a chance and brought her home instead.

[emmaverybo]

30. Read your private insurance benefits book if you have private. Blue anthem plans and United

Healthcare, possibly others, depending I think on type of plan, cover out of country care if with
contracted hospitals. They do have an extensive network all over the world. They cover emergency and urgent care. In some cases though, you have to pay up front and be reimbursed. UHC gives that same coverage if you move out of country, though that’s a benefit they could always drop.

[SharonClark]

33. Just last week I went to the ER by ambulance with a friend who had fallen in Toledo PT

She was treated by 3 doctors, had 10 stiches to her nose and mouth, and walked out without a bill.
We stopped at a pharmacy where she filled her scripts for pain medicine and antibiotics for the grand cost of 14Euro.

The Portugese (people and govenment) spend less on health care then we do in the US.