Travel Horror Story - A Trip To The Hospital Abroad

I would like to introduce you to a man named Jim. Jim and his wife were vacationing in France. It was great up until Jim fell and broke his wrist. Pretty painful but not necessarily a horror story right? Wrong! Jim went to the hospital in agonizing pain. All he wanted was for the doctor to make the pain stop. The doctor did.

Jim was feeling much better, but he was about to feel much worse. Upon leaving the hospital he was presented with a bill, $8,000. Jim said "Just send it to my insurance company". Not so fast. This is where the story gets interesting.

What Jim did not know is that his domestic insurance does not cover him while he is out of his home country. He says to himself, "I could have bought my wife a new car with that money". He thinks he is going to have to start making payments on this bill when he gets home which will take him a while to pay off, but Jim is wrong again.

The interesting thing about France is that they will not let you out of the country if you have outstanding debt within their country.

What would you do in this situation? Jim maxed out his credit cards. So now not only will he have to pay off that $8,000 but he also has to pay the 20% compounding interest to his credit card company. In total Jim ended up owning $14,000.

This is a cautionary tale to international travelers. For less than a hundred dollars Jim could have bought travel insurance. This would have covered him and his wrist. Don't get stuck owing thousands of dollars in a foreign country. You may not make it back.