A Sydney couple stuck with a million dollar hospital bill after their daughter was born in Vancouver last August. |
Australia's foreign affairs minister is looking into the case of a Sydney couple stuck with a million dollar hospital bill after their daughter was born in Vancouver last August. John Kan and Rachel Evans had taken out travel insurance and extra coverage for Evans' pregnancy without realizing the policy would not cover the birth of the baby. They were about to return to Australia after their B.C. vacation when Evans went into premature labour at the airport. Piper Kan stayed in the neo-natal ward of the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre for three months and the bill ended up being about $1 million. Australian media reports the couple negotiated a payment plan with the hospital at about $300 a month, which would take 278 years to pay off. Evans tells the Herald Sun newspaper they don't begrudge the bill because they have a healthy daughter. "Financially, it’s not so good but you can't put a price on it," she told the newspaper. It's unclear what support Australia’s foreign ministry could offer, but the Herald says the country's Dept. of Health and Ageing will reportedly investigate whether it could pay the bill. Evans said she is grateful for any help the government might be able to provide. "We don't feel our mistake was someone else's responsibility but obviously it is quite a large amount so any assistance we can get would be helpful.” Australian residents can get treatments deemed medically necessary under reciprocal agreements with 11 countries, but Canada is not one of those countries. (Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
悉尼一位女性去年八月在加拿大溫哥華產女,但夫婦兩人卻因此被迫支付高達百萬美元的醫療費用。澳大利亞外交部長正著手調查此事。 約翰?坎和雷切爾?埃文斯已經取出旅游保險和懷孕保險金,但沒料到政策并不覆蓋生育費用。 在加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞省旅游結束回國時,埃文斯突然在機場早產。 他們的女兒派帕?坎在該省婦幼醫院和健康中心的新生兒病房里住了三個月,最終的醫療費用高達大約100萬美元。 據澳大利亞媒體報道,這對夫婦和醫院就一份支付計劃進行了協商,若按每月歸還大約300美元計算的話,需要278年才能付清。 埃文斯告訴《太陽先驅報》,他們不會因為賬單感到怨恨,因為他們的女兒健康地出生了。 她告訴該報:“從經濟上說超級不劃算,但順利產女無法用價錢衡量。” 現在還不清楚澳大利亞外交部會提供什么幫助,但《太陽先驅報》稱,據報道,醫療健康及老年關懷部門將對是否支付賬單進行調查。 埃文斯說,她對政府可能會提供的任何幫助都非常感激。 “我們不認為我們的錯誤是其他人的責任,但很明顯賬單數額巨大,所以對我們的任何幫助都很有用。” 根據澳大利亞與11個國家之間的互惠協議,該國居民在被認為有必要接受治療時,都會得到救治,但加拿大不在這些國家之列,須自行負擔任何緊急醫療成本。 相關閱讀 (中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯:陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: stuck with: 被迫接受,無法擺脫 coverage: 保額,承保范圍 premature labour: 早產 |