I know a couple of people who visited Canada and had nasty accidents and got hammered on the bills (they were from the UK, not the US), well into the tens of thousands, one had a skiing accident, the other fell down an embankment. Sounds like you were lucky your insurance covered it.

If you visit Canada it's a good idea to get coverage from Ontario Blue Cross (doesn't matter where in Canada you're going). http://www.useblue.com/assurance-voyage.en.html

Beware of travel insurance offered by travel companies, read the small print and see who underwrites it and what the restrictions on use are. If you go into a Canadian hospital and pull out your OBC card you definitely are going to have an easier time of it though.

I don't need travel insurance as Aetna covers us when travelling. As it turns out they paid 100% of the Canadian hospital bills. We received their cheque within 3 weeks of being discharged.

2 weeks ago I had to visit the ER of my local hospital...I was admitted later that day. I spent approx half the number of days in the US hospital than I did in Toronto...but the bill was a couple of thousand more.

There wasn't any noticeable difference in care. The Toronto hospital was the major trauma hospital for the area. The ER was extremely noisy and busy....there were beds everywhere. I received immediate attention as soon as I got there. In the US I called my doctor when I was en route to the ER...he called the hospital and booked me in...when I got to the door they seemed to know who I was and wheeled me straight into a private room. Needless to say it was much calmer and quieter than the ER of a large downtown hospital. Neither made much difference to me as I was in a morphine induced haze.

The wards in both hospitals were almost identical....2 beds per room with WC. In the US you have the option of a private room with WC and shower for an extra $300 per day. In Toronto you don't have that choice. The insurance company will not pay for a private room unless the doctor says it is specifically needed. Each day the doctor here spent a good 15 mins with me...the doctors in Toronto spent about a minute per day with me.

I am booked in for surgery in the US in a couple of weeks...I am told I will be in hospital for at least 7 days. We expect the bill to be in six figures.

Hope all goes well, JG.

Thank you.

Ouch!

Yes hope all goes well, JG.

How it works here (I assume it's similar in TO) is that if you have supplementary insurance you can get a private room if there are any, which means you probably won't.

Sounds like you had a nasty spill, hope you get better soon.

Thank you.

I didn't see any private rooms in the TO ward but if I ever have to go there again I will enquire about it. The rooms are mixed sex...there was a man in the first room I was put into...it was about 11 pm. I don't know whether he was drunk, on drugs or one of TO's many mentally challenged homeless people. He was shouting and yelling from his bed. My husband refused to leave me in a room with him....I was moved to a room with another female.
In the US hospital the rooms were all same sex rooms.

Random rant about the 'system' here.

Insurance co. can arbitrarily impose its own limit on the number of tablets prescribed by the doctor, as well as hold up referrals.

I hope this hasn't been posted already - but here is an interesting comparison between the US system and those of other developed countries. The most interesting statistic is that we spend more of our taxes on healthcare here in the US than in the UK

http://www.upworthy.com/his-first-4-...-little-sick-2

So it begins. The kid got her first bill this morning...what does she need with a credit history anyway

Anyway, first bill, just says x2 forearm exam, total of $343

Insurance paid $233 and there was a $84 insurance adjustment, leaving the kid with a $26 bill.

17 different people saw the kid, I'm really hoping we don't get 16 more similar bills as well as bills for equipment usage etc.

Instead of saving for college you can be saving for future and present medical bills!

Sod that, she can get a paper round....and pronto

Bill number 2 is from the ER, it's $3986

Insurance paid $2860 and the rate adjustment of $976 leaving us with $150 bill.

That includes:

$2025 for the ER room for the afternoon
$370 for docs exam
$360 for the elbow x-ray
$685 for the forearm x-rays of which there were two, before/after
$395 for the cast
$66 for the ketamine drugs
$87 for ortho supplies, I'm guessing for the monitor pads etc
$368 for another exam presuming after the arm was set

Bit of sticker shock there, till we got to the bottom of the bill and saw the rate adjustment and how much was paid so what we're left with wasn't so bad.

I'm guessing this still isn't the last of it, but we'll see.

One of the reasons that ER is so expensive is that they have to have equipment available (x-rays, MRIs, CAT scans, etc. even if it is mostly unused). If the ER is part of a large hospital that has a large number of each, it may be possible to use the hospital's equipment and bump other patients to a later time.