Obligatory throwaway account. Also, I couldn't find a better sub for this, so please let me know if I should post this elsewhere.
TL;DR: Sister + Husband are US Citizens and broke in Indonesia. He had a massive stroke and now they cannot pay mounting hospital bills. Husband is also an Indonesian citizen.
I am reaching out to Reddit to see if someone here can provide some high-level guidance on what to do if, as an American citizen, you're facing a Medical Emergency in Indonesia.
This is for my sister and her husband. Sister's a US Citizen, her husband is a US Citizen (also Indonesian Citizen, which I don't think is allowed). He's originally from Indonesia, but both were married and living the last 15 years in the US. They decided to take a long vacation after being furloughed from their jobs (in the US) to her husbands home country.
While in Indonesia, the Husband had a bad stroke, and is currently in an ICU. They had to do emergency surgery. Has spent about 11 days in the ICU so far. He's currently sedated and has not been conscious since.
Before they would perform surgery, my sister reports she was told she had to pre-pay the costs, and so she put it on a credit card. There was another surgery, and then costs for ICU and a Vent, all which I'm told racked up about $20k so far on her credit cards. The cards are all maxed out now, and the bills keep mounting. She's told she owes now another $10k, and she's flat out broke.
Some basic facts about them: Neither have any notable savings and live pay-check to pay-check. No assets, close to minimum wage. They canceled their COBRA insurance before leaving for the trip because the premium was too high.
He does have family that lives in the city where he had the stroke, but they seem reluctant to help financially or even help my sister navigate this, even though they are actively visiting him. I get the impression they are also broke.
I do not know how to advise her. She's already given the hospital $20k, and I understand that these are likely inflated prices (they had him in a VIP room for the first few days). My sister, being in a panic'd state, just handed over her cards to the billing office whenever they asked. She can no longer do that.
Some other things/Questions:
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She mentioned that she pulled out some travel insurance before leaving, about $15k max though (bare bones). Should she be contacting them? The billing office told her to just call that office for reimbursement for the bills.
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Can she just tell the Billing Office to back off, and send her a bill later? Why are they being so aggressive? Should her MIL put herself as the guarantor on the account? Is there such a thing in Indonesia?
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What would happen if she just told them the honest to god truth: "I'm tapped out. I got nothing to give you." Wouldn't they have to at least continue to treat him until he is awake and recovered?
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Is there any kind of government safety net he could fall into?
My family's not a rich one, and if my siblings & I pool our money to throw at my sister's husbands treatment, we're worried we'll quickly find ourselves broke too. I need advice.
Submitted January 29, 2021 at 09:18PM by sickinindonesia https://ift.tt/2YvJhco
