U.S citizen detained in Nairobi, Kenya hospital over unpaid US $23,000 bill

Good advice for when you're in the USA as well.

Of course this is posted here because he is American. Otherwise, it happens all the time to locals -- not that I am defending the practice.

Anything to scam someone and charge astronomical amounts of money

A simple Go Fund Me would solve this.

Bad things happen to you when you’re 82.

My advice is you live that long: don’t be a dummy and don’t travel to a 3rd world country as a tourist

$23,000 sounds like a bargain. In the US it would have been $123,000, at least.

Shocking that they'd do such a thing with a visitor at that age when you know that health care costs in Nairobi are very low.

debtors prison

MD House wrote:

$23,000 sounds like a bargain. In the US it would have been $123,000, at least.

It’s going up day by day so that’s not the final amount every day that he stays in there it gets more expensive. I’m not sure what it is but he was using a lot of machinery so it might’ve been like $500 a day or more.

Young and healthy runners do not need money sucking, stinking healthcare plans, and no vaccines.

And here I'd been told that the US is the only place with outrageous healthcare costs and the rest of the world is miles ahead of us in this regard.

russian roulette wrote:

Young and healthy runners do not need money sucking, stinking healthcare plans, and no vaccines.

It’s better to have some kind of coverage when you go abroad because even in cheap countries healthcare costs can mount up quite rapidly if there is a problem.

A few years ago, I met a Belgian who had a motorcycle accident in Thailand but luckily he had healthcare coverage which saved him a substantial amount of money because he was taken to a private hospital for care. It might’ve cost him thousands of euros without that healthcare coverage.

Of course the US is the worst for that type of accident where it can ruin you for life if you incurred healthcare costs without any insurance cover.

Ghost1 wrote:

russian roulette wrote:

Young and healthy runners do not need money sucking, stinking healthcare plans, and no vaccines.

It’s better to have some kind of coverage when you go abroad because even in cheap countries healthcare costs can mount up quite rapidly if there is a problem.

A few years ago, I met a Belgian who had a motorcycle accident in Thailand but luckily he had healthcare coverage which saved him a substantial amount of money because he was taken to a private hospital for care. It might’ve cost him thousands of euros without that healthcare coverage.

Of course the US is the worst for that type of accident where it can ruin you for life if you incurred healthcare costs without any insurance cover.

UK they would still treat any foreigner. They definitely are not going to hold you hostage!

Our government stuffed up the initial Covid reaction but on vaccines you see the value of the NHS

God of Wine wrote:

A simple Go Fund Me would solve this.

That’s my insurance plan. Works for health insurance. Funerals. Flooded house. Lost dog. School field trip.

I don’t know why I even work anymore.

knox harrington wrote:

Good advice for when you're in the USA as well.

Actually it’s not a problem for tourists visiting the US. Emergency rooms here are required to treat you, and you could easily run up a million dollar bill, but there’s no mechanism to hold you accountable for the charges (unlike in many countries where they won’t let you leave until you’ve paid).

Off topic - but can you comment about your thoughts of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine?

I’m on a waiting list in France for this vaccine and also the Johnson and Johnson vaccine with the latter being only one dose apparently.

There’s a disadvantage for the Astrazeneca vaccine in that the second shot only takes place 12 weeks after the first jab. In France, the vast majority of the population simply refuse to entertain the thought of taking the Astrazeneca vaccine.

Last week in Nice, for example, they laid out a huge auditorium with 3000 doses of Astrazeneca free of charge and only 60 people turned up!

In my opinion, the public outcry in France against taking this vaccine is illogical and the benefits of taking this vaccine despite not being the favorite one far outweigh the risks of not doing anything.

The French are a funny bunch and they love stressing about different issues, even when things are going relatively well.

I'd say that the fears about the AstraZeneca and the Johnson and Johnson vaccines are overblown. Yeah, there are some bloodclotting issues. But the chances of it happening are literally about 1 in 500,000. It is ridiculous to be scared of it. In comparison the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have caused anaphalaxis in about 1 in 5,000.

Personally I would lean to the J&J one since they waited the longest so they seem to have the most robust research. The average antibody count in J&J users goes up continuously up to a few months after the shot, plus it only takes the one shot instead of two. It doesn't have the efficacy of Pfizer or Moderna, but is pretty close to AZ.

Thank you for your answer. Yes, we are still in unknown territory long term to know about the effects of all these vaccines but it seems that the benefits outweigh the risks for most if not all of the vaccines which have been put on the market in Western countries. I’m not sure about the Chinese vaccines though?