Originally Posted by
nerd
Why would they deport you? If U.S. insurance is going to pay, they'd probably make money off the deal.
Say you're in intensive care, and U.S. insurance pays $5,000/day (that's a low estimate of cost - ICU can cost $10k+/day). Healthcare in most of the developed world costs half of what it does here in the U.S. ($2,500/day for the same services) so bingo -- 100% profit.
That's not quite how most US insurance works. Many - if not most- US based insurance requires tons and tons of paperwork to be filled out for reimbursement. And most require American specific diagnosis codes and treatment codes before they will pay out ANY money. Foreign countries do not use this system or have access to the codes. If the foreign hospital DOES manage to file a claim that will be paid, then the insurance company will only pay actual costs, i.e. you can't inflate the cost just because they may pay more.
So foreign health care runs on a completely different system. The trouble of taking people hours and months and months to maybe collect monies is probably not worth the effort to try and file insurance. That is why most require you pay up front and then you file an insurance claim and try to collect.