Brum Mum hit with £75k hospital bill after premature birth in USA

[DGRossetti]

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/bartley-green-mum-hit-75k-19484536

A mum has racked up a £75,000 medical bill after prematurely giving birth in America - two days before she was due to fly home to Birmingham.

Amy Collins, from Birmingham, needed an emergency caesarean to deliver tiny William Collins in Texas on December 11.

He was born at 24 weeks and weighed just 1lb 9ozs and needed specialist care in hospital where he remains.

Amy, 30, had been due to fly back to Birmingham on December 13.

But with no insurance she has been left with a medical bill of £75,000 for the delivery and care of her son - with the charges set to rocket further.

(contd)

@sunshinehappy20. I doubt she’d be able to do that as the baby is an American citizen with an American Dad- unless he gives permission. I’m a Brit living in the US and I can’t just up and take my children to the UK. They’ll still be liable for the money owed to the hospital anyway, the Dad’ll have to work out a payment plan even if if his wife and baby leave.

And he can’t come to the UK long term without a visa...don’t get me started on how complicated that is.😂

I wonder if her older child is still in the UK and living with her mum.

The article says the older daughter lives in the US with her mum and the American step dad. The grandmother does say in the article she is planning to fly to US to bring the older daughter back to U.K. to live with her because the mum needs to care for the new baby.

That’s a bit odd to me. It’s like mum has a new husband and new baby makes three so no room for daughter from prior relationship.

@PlanDeRaccordement

I wonder if her older child is still in the UK and living with her mum.

The article says the older daughter lives in the US with her mum and the American step dad. The grandmother does say in the article she is planning to fly to US to bring the older daughter back to U.K. to live with her because the mum needs to care for the new baby.

That’s a bit odd to me. It’s like mum has a new husband and new baby makes three so no room for daughter from prior relationship.

I re-read the article and I still can't see where they said that.

It said she had been due to fly home to Birmingham on 13th Dec.
It said that she had been living on and off in the US for the last 3 years.
It said that her mum was due to fly out and bring the daughter back.

It really isn't very clear what the living arrangements were/are, and I suppose it's none of our business, but the mum shouldn't have been travelling without health insurance. If she could afford the flights back and forth, it's not like she's living on the poverty line.

Agree with all the other posters, to travel you must have insurance.

As an aside, that’s another reason why international travel is going to be difficult in the next few years as insurance companies usually don’t cover for known pandemics so potentially catching covid will mean your insurance doesn’t cover any resulting medical treatment you need outside your home country.

The very best insurance covers pregnancy but not the unborn baby. They are counted as a separate person and can’t be insured. I discovered this when reading the fine print. You think it covers you because it says it covers pregnancy and birth but from moment baby is born it won’t cover baby.

Not correct. Insurance covers pre-natal, delivery, and covers the baby's care for up to 31 days after birth. Then the baby needs to be registered as a dependent on the insured's policy.
Most obstetricians will not take a patient who does not have insurance unless they pay the costs upfront -- depending on doctor and hospital it is usually $30,000 up. C-sections and ICUs can triple the costs.

@Love51

Isn't it dodgy for non usa people to give birth in the states as the us courts consider the child a us citizen and back the us parent in custody disputes?

International custody law says unless the parents agree or the courts say otherwise the child should stay in the country of residence if the parents split. This recently happened to DH colleague both U.K. ex pats living in Canada, Mum decides to end relationship gets on a flight to return home and she was made by the courts return the children to Canada.

If he's self-employed he may have very limited insurance. My company-provided insurance does not cover the cost of childbirth, although it would cover any extra medical needs beyond that. Basically, at my work, people have to save between $3 - $5 k to pay for the birth of a child. Health insurance is crazy difficult to understand, and often how you phrase a question to the insurance co. can vary the care you get covered.

I have learned to deal with it, and if I'd had my DD in the US (we moved across when she was 5) I'd have checked and triple checked what was covered etc to plan for worst-case scenario.

Hospitals, of course, come across situations like this all the time, and write off vast amounts of costs where they figure they won't be able to recoup them. If they think they can get the money back, then they will pursue the family for the money.

Without knowing the situation in full detail, it's impossible to say if they were chancers who got caught out, lacking the know-how to realize their risks or the victims of circumstance. Her plan to fly back to the UK and the vague "living off and on in the US" makes it sound like they were chancers, but you can't be sure.

@BedknobsNoBroomsticks

I have very little sympathy for her. Yes it must be awful having to go through that in another country however she should have had insurance.

Reminds me of the couple a few years ago who amasses a fortune in go fund me donations when the woman gave birth in New York I think but that was quite close to being a scam. They said they weren't covered by insurance but were and the money quietly disappeared.

I think with this one the maternity bits were covered but once the baby was born it was no longer covered as you can’t insure an unborn child, so the bill was for the scbu stay. There was a big hoo ha and eventually the insurance company paid up but I didn’t realize there was a go fund me.

@TruculentandFarty

Her husband is an engineer, it is unlikely he can't afford insurance.

Is he a real engineer or is it a case of the term being downgraded? The guy who repairs the photocopier at work is officially called the repographics engineer he does a great job but he's not a chartered engineer.

@ElementalIllusion

She’s married to an American.

“ Amy has been married to Texan engineer Greg Collins for the last year and is also mum to seven-year-old daughter Ava, from a previous relationship.

She had been living off and on in America after she met Greg online three years ago when an online romance blossomed.”

Why is she and the baby not covered under his insurance?

I had very little sympathy for her for not having travel insurance before, I have zero sympathy at all now I’ve read she is married to an American and living on/off in America with him.

She should know the American healthcare system, and he 100% will, there’s no excuse not to be appropriately covered in their situation.

Absolutely no excuse whatsoever.

Everytime I take an animal to the vets I’m reminded how much I love the nhs!

@EvilPea

Everytime I take an animal to the vets I’m reminded how much I love the nhs!

I agree.

Vet care is amazing if you have insurance, one cat got an ultrasound the day after he needed it and the other cat got x-rays the next day too which diagnosed his cancer. I was not insured for my elderly cat and spent £1000 on palliative care in the last few months of his life, there is no way I would have been able to afford cancer treatment.

My new kitten is fully insured!

Me too! Over £1000 at the vets for an ear infection. (Insured thankfully!)

The article says the older daughter lives in the US with her mum and the American step dad. The grandmother does say in the article she is planning to fly to US to bring the older daughter back to U.K. to live with her because the mum needs to care for the new baby.

That’s a bit odd to me. It’s like mum has a new husband and new baby makes three so no room for daughter from prior relationship.

Or maybe the mum has just had a baby at 24weeks and knows she will probably be spending most of the next 6 months in hospital.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst the linked article says they already have

And there is already a donation from an Amy Collins on the page. Of course it could be a different Amy Collins than the baby’s mother, but it’s a bit of a coincidence if it is.

We don’t go on a weekend break to Barcelona without full insurance. It’s part of the holiday cost, just like transport too and from the airport.

It’s awful and I feel for the poor woman but she and her husband only have themselves to blame. She left herself and her child in a very vulnerable position.

There is already a donation from an Amy Collins on the page. Of course it could be a different Amy Collins than the baby’s mother, but it’s a bit of a coincidence if it is

Ah - I hadn't looked at the names of donors so far

If it really is the baby's mum then it suggests she's not exactly thought this through, but then the same apploes to the insurance issue

Charity donations are tax deductible inn the US. Donations to her own charity could be saving get money.

@KickAssAngel

Charity donations are tax deductible inn the US. Donations to her own charity could be saving get money.

Donations to individuals, even for what seems like a charitable purpose, are never tax deductable in the US. You have to give to a charity that is registered with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to get the tax deduction. And it's not easy to get and stay registered.

If they didn't do this then Mary would "donate" a pot of money to Sally, who would then donate it back to Mary so that both could deduct it.

@SherryPalmer

The article says the older daughter lives in the US with her mum and the American step dad. The grandmother does say in the article she is planning to fly to US to bring the older daughter back to U.K. to live with her because the mum needs to care for the new baby.

That’s a bit odd to me. It’s like mum has a new husband and new baby makes three so no room for daughter from prior relationship.

Or maybe the mum has just had a baby at 24weeks and knows she will probably be spending most of the next 6 months in hospital.

No the mum won’t. She’ll be discharged and have to visit the baby in the NICU during Covid safe visiting hours. They won’t let her stay in hospital herself and she probably won’t even want to as it would be at lest $10k per day added t her bill.

I am afraid I have little sympathy for people who don’t have adequate travel insurance, US Medical bills are astronomical, why would you take the chance? Sheer madness.

No the mum won’t. She’ll be discharged and have to visit the baby in the NICU during Covid safe visiting hours. They won’t let her stay in hospital herself and she probably won’t even want to as it would be at lest $10k per day added t her bill.

Im aware how it works. Having just checked the hospital (in the US) where my son was born prematurely, NICU visiting hours look just the same as usual to me - parents allowed in 24hrs. Which makes sense when they already have procedures to protect against diseases which are actually more dangerous for newborns.

You’re right about being discharged as the standard but that could mean hours of commuting from home to hospital each day if the nearest level III NICU is some distance away. Either way it’s not unusual that parents of premature babies need extra support in looking after their existing children and not indicative that she doesn’t give a shit.

Average uncomplicated C-section in the US is $52,000.00. Copay would be $10,400. And again, that does not include the doctors, specialists, anesthesiologist, etc

And this is why healthcare should never be a privatised commercial service. I have a child who has had several extremely expensive orthopaedic treatments, involving a 5 hour operation (far longer than a CS), expensive titanium kit, weekly clinic visits etc. I know what our specialist hospital charges the NHS Trusts of patients who come from other regions. And it is a lot less than that.

Why wasn't she insured. Everyone knows about the risks. She took a chance and didn't pay for insurance.,

I can't really muster that much sympathy for her. If you can afford to splash out on a holiday to America, then surely you can afford insurance too?