American guy is surprised when he gets a realistic hospital bill in forgein country

Authored by reddit.com and submitted by spalatidium

Hello I am an American who was traveling in Split for a holiday. Ended up drinking a little bit too much, blacked out and woke up in the hospital with an IV in my arm. Somehow the bill was only $240 kn.

Can anybody tell me why the bill was so cheap especially since I am a US citizen without Croatian healthcare insurance? Also did they notify the embassy of my stay? Just don’t know where my info is documented and ended up. Wish I could read my discharge papers but they are all in Croatian. Going to have to do google translate late.

Xuluu on June 30th, 2019 at 19:04 UTC »

Wow this is so sad. I recently went to the ER for dehydration and was there maybe 2 hours. I had 2 bags of IV and was charged $200 for admission and $980 for the Dr.'s time. Because of course he was out of network despite being one town over (the closest ER).

dreiter on June 30th, 2019 at 18:58 UTC »

Same in Japan. My relative was visiting from the US for a vacation and she developed a UTI. She went to a nearby doctor and he examined her and gave her a prescription for antibiotics. She didn't have Japanese health insurance so she had to pay the full cash price for the exam and prescription. It was $44, total. The receptionist said, "Don't stress out about the cost, your insurance in the US will reimburse you." She didn't understand that our copay here is already more than the total cost was in Japan.

swoofswoofles on June 30th, 2019 at 18:21 UTC »

240 Croatian Kunas is equal to 36 USD.