Posted on 03/31/2012 10:11:01 AM PDT by SMGFan
A New Jersey couple who were seriously injured in a scooter accident while on vacation in the Bahamas this week - and who were refused medical treatment by Bahamian and Miami hospitals - were flown home on Friday to Hackensack University Medical Center, according to a report published by Northjersey.com. Diandra Barreto and Michael Gallinella of Woodbridge were riding on a rented scooter when they crashed on the tropical island on Sunday. Barreto, 24, had a dislocated leg, several spine fractures and a lacerated liver which may have been bleeding internally for six days. Gallinella, 36, had broken ribs, a punctured lung and a possible neck injury. But both were stuck in a hospital in the Bahamas for nearly a week because two hospitals refused to treat the uninsured couple, friends and relatives said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Typical. Don’t rent a scooter.
I don’t know about Miami, but I know if you get injured overseas you can’t count on decent care.
I remember the USSR olympic team members traveled with all their own hospital supplies. And I know of someone who died in jamaica in a road accident, and was basically left to die, over hours, on a table, because they had no ability to care for him.
Can afford a vacation in the Bahamas but can’t afford health insurance?
You can buy health insurance coverage specifically for travel outside the US. Doesn’t cost much, since it’s generally for a very short period ... like the emergency travel life insurance coverage!
Renting the scooter wasn’t the problem. I’ve owned a scooter for many years and I’ve never had a road problem.
It’s the driver of the scooter that is the problem.
People always go cheap on the inexpensive parts of vacations.
From what I understand, you will get treated but you will end up with an unfathomably large medical bill. I recall many years ago a British tourist was trapped in the US after running up a bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars after a serious accident. Fortunately, this was in the wake of 9-11 and the beginning of the WOT, so the Americans had a whip ‘round for the citizen of a loyal ally and paid off her bills so that she could go home...
Vacations in the Bahamas can be pretty cheap. Health insurance easily in the tens of thousands a year.
One of the problems with renting a scooter in The Bahamas is that they follow the British rules of the road, i.e., drive on the left. That’s not a really big deal until you come to a cloverleaf roundabout. Many such riders are not experienced with the vehicle, and having to fight acquired knowledge by mirror-image riding leads to a lot of injuries.
What kind of article is this?
They were refused treatment in hospital. Yet spent 2 weeks in the hospital there.
Wow.
* 1 week.
All a person needs to do is buy travelers insurance before they travel. You can get 100 grand in medical coverage and its good anywhere on the planet. I get mine through America express.
that is “American Express”
If ya lost your insurance and have a home in the U.S., they'll treat you, then take your home, throw you in the street.
Yes, out of the millions who travel every year there may be a few who have sickness/accidents and run into bad trouble.
This utopian thinking that bad stuff never happens is dangerous and demogoguery will get even worse if it continues.
Correct. The cost is very reasonable. For years I kept up both overseas medical insurance and an air ambulance insurance to bring me back to the US. The account would even pay for english translators and to fly someone from the US to help me get home. Fortunately I never needed it. Now I rarely travel out of the country.
Bet me, if ya have equity in your home, and no insurance, and you get hit with big $ for treatment and can't pay, you can file bankruptcy and creditors/court can still be force the sale of your home to pay those owed.
How is it that they can afford this nice vacation but they can’t afford health insurance? Also, my son almost had his finger torn off in the British Virgin Islands. The people at the little clinic couldn’t have been nicer.
I may be traveling overseas soon. Can you give me a name or a URL for this insurance?
DArkwing is Correct
“My gut tells me that there is more to this story.... “
Has to be more. Hospitals in USA MUST treat you, even Illegals, treat you to the point you can be transferred.
‘The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)[1] is a U.S. Act of Congress passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). It requires hospitals to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions.”
Now it is possible that the Miami hopsital gave them the minimum required care and then offered to transport them to another hospital that would treat people with no insurance.
That ia a far cry from refusing service.
If the value of your equity in your property is more than the exemption amount, you might be required by the court to turn it over to the bankruptcy trustee who will sell it and use the money to pay creditors.
Trust me, people in the U.S. lose their homes all the time, simply becasue they lost their health insurance and got sick.
that’s the down side of not having insurance. Their choice.
You have no clue what you are talking about, I’ve been through it. Find one story in the msm where anyone has lost their primary residence due to medical bills.
Vacations in the Bahamas can be pretty cheap. Health insurance easily in the tens of thousands a year.
Not unless the 36 and 24 year old had a 20 year history if smoking,both were hypertensive, both had previous heart attacks and both diagnosed with HIV and cancer.
Yep. Last time I checked (recently), The exemption in Kalifornia is only $75 K and hasn't been changed in 25 or 30 years.
Pure BS, they cannot take your home. Worst case, you file for bankruptcy. They do not take your home in a bankruptcy.
Bet me, if ya have equity in your home, and no insurance, and you get hit with big $ for treatment and can’t pay, you can file bankruptcy and creditors/court can still be force the sale of your home to pay those owed.
And why is it, Dragnet2 that you think people should not be responsible for their bills? Try that next time you go to the grocery store, skip your mortgage payment or fail to pay for any other service you contracted for. There is no “free” in free medical care - your neighbors, friends and fellow taxpayers pick up your bills -
I don't understand the main points of ObamaCare, but even if ObamaCare is found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court, would ObamaCare be worth it even though it would cost the American people a lot of money, because in the long run, it would help people like the young couple in the story who were seriously injured in the Bahamas?
Or, is it possible for Congress to come up with a simpler, clearer, and less expensive plan than ObamaCare?
For instance, maybe the federal government could offer special, affordable health insurance to travelers without first requiring a person to join a plan like ObamaCare.
Or, the federal government could require citizens to purchase low cost health insurance whenever they traveled out of the country.
I just don't know whether or not to support ObamaCare. Maybe some people here can persuade me to support ObamaCare by pointing out to me how much good it would do, even if it ends up costing Americans a lot of money.
I read that and concluded that those two semesters I spent in logic classes had been wasted. Nobody uses it anymore.
This is at best a partial story. It appears these clowns, who weren’t in the country, wanted to fly to Miami so they could take advantage of the Federal law mandating free medical care and they’re ticked off because the Miami hospital wasn’t going to admit them unless they could pay for their care. So, it really stretches the “bad things never happen” meme.
As an example, a relative recently needed some tests. I'm looking at my insurance website: hospital bill = $866, insurance paid $48, insured pays $0. So the hospital billed the insurance company for the item, the insurance company replied "You guys are crazy, we're paying $48", and the hospital says "OK".
As has already been pointed out, they had money for a vacation but not insurance? Must be Obama supporters.
Exactly...you'd think anyone with any common sense would avail themselves of this.
All that don't matter to those that had their health care benefits slashed or eliminated, as they'll still be in the street, as their home is sold out from under them.
There's not a hospital or collection agency in the world that wants your house if you can't pay your medical bills.
They and your county assistance agencies will bend over backwards to try to accomodate some sort of repayment system.
Those who choose the bankruptcy route obviously have little equity in their homes and want to take the Obama way out and leave the insurance companies and the finance companies with the bill....aka, you and I.
Bet me!
If ya have equity in your home, and no insurance, and you get hit with big $ for treatment and can’t pay, you can file bankruptcy and creditors/court can still be force the sale of your home to pay those owed.
And why is it, Dragnet2 that you think people should not be responsible for their bills?
Tell that to Mom and Pop where Pop, when pop has his healthcare eliminated or made all but useless, and are thrown in the street.
Try that next time you go to the grocery store, skip your mortgage payment
You're comparing grocery money or a mortgage payment to criminal rip off medical cost that easily go $100,000 to $700,000 in a blink of an eye?
No way they can deal with that, you know it and I know it. But sometimes just drop dead from all stress, if the illness don't get them first...And they still lose their homes.
Mean while, as mom and pop twist in the wind, the banks, insiders, Wall Street and fat corps are bailed out to the tune of multiple trillions.
Get real Mr. Froggie.
Bull shit.
Wrong, those with little or no equity are not the issue. It’s those with equity, that had their health insurance eliminated are the ones that find themselves financially murdered, and many times homeless.
By the way, some of the biggest crooks in the country run insurance and finance companies.
Contrary to all MSM reports, the insurance companies are not the evil entities they are made out to be. As evidenced by the bills you quoted and those that I receive, it's the insurance companies that keep the medical costs in check........
Since the goal of our government is to take over the health care industry, they will be the ones determining what gets paid to the providers after the insurance companies are put out of business.......In other words, Medicare and its failings on steroids.
Contrary to all MSM reports, the insurance companies are not the evil entities they are made out to be. As evidenced by the bills you quoted and those that I receive, it's the insurance companies that keep the medical costs in check........
Since the goal of our government is to take over the health care industry, they will be the ones determining what gets paid to the providers after the insurance companies are put out of business.......In other words, Medicare and its failings on steroids.
I don't accept your premise that anyone has their insurance eliminated without their consent........
That’s why I support forcing hospitals and physicians to post a fee schedule for various procedures, that is the only way that HSAs can work as they are supposed to.
Two years ago, my son had an out-patient cardiac procedure, which the doctor told him would have cost $85,000, if he didn’t have insurance, but was $12,500 for the insurance company. That’s nuts.
Where do you get this Pollyanna think?
Insurance companies are not much different than the mob, paid protection, and they don't like paying even legitimate claims if they can get away with it, and they hire armies of investigators and attorneys to ensure that.
In fact, go look closely at a big corp insurance company headquarters, as they now resemble DOD facilities, complete with bullet resistant glass, card locks, armed guards, secured entries etc. Ya know why?
What kind of babble speak is this?
This is how it works: Hey Mr. Peon, we've eliminated your job, and or your company group medical insurance. By the way, your hours have been cut too. Now get back to work before you're laid off too.
BTW, why do ya think in today’s America, employers no longer want full time employees?
Ya think this is just an accident with little thought behind it?
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