Health concerns can come up while traveling, and our worst fears can take over. My experience in a German hospital was eye-opening.
Getting Really, Really Sick While Traveling
We set out on a business trip with supplier meetings that spanned London, Istanbul, Athens, and Munich. It seems like a lot, but as a travel agency owner, this is not atypical for our business. Somewhere along the way, I contracted a food borne illness and was really, really sick for more than a week. Without getting into the graphic details, it was the most significant gastrointestinal distress I have ever experienced and lasted far longer than the normal 24-72 hours food poisoning typically lasts. Combined with this was dehydration that caused further complications, stress, and inhibited my ability to recuperate.
In Athens, we sought medical attention immediately upon arriving at the hotel. For those curious, Greek doctors will happily make house calls to your hotel if you’re feeling unwell (mine cost €120) and mobile IV services are also available for about the same cost to rehydrate. We requested the doctor bring an IV but this was lost in translation. He provided some prescriptions to treat the symptoms and make me more comfortable but advised I should follow up with my primary care physician upon my return.
After a tough couple of days in an Athens hotel, we left for Munich, our final stop. We had shopped for flights home from Athens either just for myself or with my family but there were virtually no reasonable route options with availability in the height of the summer travel season. After this much time (now nine days) certainly I would have to be at the end of this dilemma.
It was a tough day to fly, I was never very comfortable, was generally fairly week and in essence hadn’t retained any material food for more than a week. The landing into Munich was moderately turbulent, and it did not go well for me. Exiting the airport in Munich, I could hardly stand for any substantial duration.
Regular readers of this blog will note that while I am rarely ill, this summer has resulted in several frustrating health events almost exclusively while traveling.
Seeking Care
Shortly after checking into our Munich hotel (stunning, review to follow in the coming weeks), my wife located a hospital about a ten minute walk though we took a taxi. We walked through what seemed to be an elaborate maze of hallways in what felt like a 1930s era university conversion to find a preliminary exam room.
We don’t speak German, but almost everywhere we went someone spoke English, a skill for which I am incredibly grateful so many Germans possess. Our first encounter at an admin’s desk, however, was met with annoyance that we do not speak German by someone who did not speak English. While we struggled using translator apps on our phone, the receptionist seemingly intentionally would not wait for the translation to begin speaking leaving us without the ability to communicate. The Doctor happened by, witnessed what was happening, spoke with the receptionist and gave us a sheet with directions on what to fill out.
My blood was sampled and analyzed on the spot with a read out in English. Immediately upon examining the read out, the doctor was concerned by a key marker and indicated that we needed to move to another area of the hospital for specific examination. The results were consistent with a bacterial infection that began with a specific type of food borne illness and my dehydration compounded the problem.
We found ourselves in the emergency room, once we had paid €70 in cash (no cards accepted.) We were grateful to pay it and have some sort of an answer as to what was going on.
The Most Amazing Doctor
At the emergency room reception, we struggled to explain that we were happy to pay cash when a doctor was called in. She apologized for her English – which was utterly flawless – and explained that while I could be examined there, based on the blood test results I couldn’t be treated at that hospital and would have to pay for both my exam there plus the secondary hospital.
“If you need to stay overnight it will cost €5,000 for the one night stay not including the surgery.” Wait, surgery? That was new information and didn’t make sense to me. The doctor then incredulously confirmed the amount with the reception and expressed she thought it was absurd. She then, asks about whether we have insurance, we say yes, but in America. She communicates this back on our behalf, there’s lots of back and forth, more frustration by the doctor and then she states, “I’m just going to see you here and now, no insurance.”
She took me back to an exam theater and began an ultra sound. The excessive use of gel appears to be a universal challenge to the procedure. She identified a further concern and then comes up with a plan. She was comforting, thorough, communicated what was happening to my wife who was waiting outside, administered the IV I needed days ago, and sent me away with a prescription after a couple of hours.
When I say that she was the angel I needed, I mean that as literally as possible.
Costs And Travel Insurance
I have mentioned some of the costs along the way, all of which we were happy to pay. When the emergency room receptionist and doctor were discussing a potential surgery and costly overnight stay at a hospital, my wife added some emergency travel insurance which we found incredibly reasonably priced. We were able to add it for the just the days of our stay in Germany including repatriation flights and any costs incurred before returning home at a cost of about $200. That was the easiest decision I have ever made. In the words of Ryan Gosling in the Big Short,
“I’m standing in front of a burning house, and I’m offering you fire insurance on it!”
The running total was:
- €120 – Athens Doctor
- €20 – Athens prescriptions and over the counter medicines (4)
- €70 – Primary evaluation at Munich hospital
- €200 – Emergency room treatment at Munich hospital
- €170 – Travel Insurance
- €580 – TOTAL
For the care I was given, the relief, the diagnosis – it seemed like the best bargain of my life.
Conclusion
I was impressed by the care I received and quick attention offered by the Munich hospital I visited. The doctor that cared for me was an absolute class act taking me on without hesitation at the end of her shift and extending her already worked 12-hour day by another 90 minutes when I’m sure she just wanted to go home. While the facilities in the US may be more modern, the costs would have been exorbitant even with insurance in-network at home. Being sick anywhere is tough, but to the extent of my illness and being that I was abroad at the time was an incredibly trying and scary situation. I couldn’t be more grateful for the service and expertise of my German hospital visit, though I hope to never repeat it.
Hope you are feeling better. Had a few instances I had to visit a doctor/hospital when traveling abroad. My experience was the following:
Brazil: Since it was a visit to the Urgent Care, paid cash for everything and was fully reimbursed by my US insurance when back home after presenting all the proper paperwork
Italy and Spain: Had to visit the ER twice for kidney stones and all I had to present was my EU passport and didn’t pay anything. Got x-ray, ultrasound and prescriptions all at no cost. Once while traveling in Italy, my son had food poisoning and the hotel called a local doctor that was happy to come to see he in our room. prescribed him a few things that we got at the local pharmacy and he was 100% in two days. She charged EUR70, and I happily gave her a EUR100 bit which she thanked many times.
Indonesia: Similar to your case, couldn’t leave my hotel room for 2 days and was very dehydrated. Reception called a doctor that came to my room with IV and brought medicines. I paid something like $100 to the hotel directly.
Best wishes Kyle . Gastro is very painful .
Causes can be street food , excess coffee , stress , and/or stomach ulcer . Perhaps a taco in Istanbul ?
omg glad u are alive! as a technical pt, i would not expect that insurance policy to be in force. does it cover preexisting conditions? I think most trip ins needs to be bought x days before the trip right?
Kyle wrote “While the facilities in the US may be more modern, the costs would have been exorbitant even with insurance in-network at home”
While it’s popular to bash America, stop it.
Medicaid is free. Zero out of pocket costs for Americans treated at an American hospital. Medicaid and Medicare covers nearly half of Americans. Add free VA for veterans and a majority of Americans are in this camp.
I checked my insurance and it covers emergency treatment in overseas. That is not true for nearly all universal health care systems that other countries have so a Canadian in Germany would be hosed.
In several European countries, Paxlovid for Covid is so restricted that you cannot get it. In some countries, you can’t buy it for a million dollars. That is because Paxlovid is expensive and universal health care systems don’t want to spend money.
The majority of Americans don’t qualify for Medicaid. While most medicaid recipients do not face additional out of pocket expenses for their healthcare, calling it free is misleading. The program costs over $900 billion annually, and this is paid for by American taxpayers– the average American taxpayer likely shoulders a burden of around $500 month to fund Medicaid.
I agree with this and would add that in addition to paying for other people’s medical costs, even non-citizens, as taxpayers here in the USA we also get to pay for our own insurance privately which is common for most employers who also pay to subsidize it at higher costs than it should be since Obamacare was put into place. The trade off is that we get access to the best healthcare in the world.
The US is not even in the top ten for the best healthcare when you look at the actual metrics,
Public health in the US is a disaster, and it’s only getting worse.
Life expectancy in countries like Chile, Panama, and Costa Rica is higher than in the “developed” US.
“who also pay to subsidize it at higher costs than it should be since Obamacare was put into place”
More people having access to healthcare, have kept rates down.
Wait until you see what premiums will be next year, I am looking at a 23% increase, due to the reduction in ACA subsidies for health plans
Those ACA reductions are not saving you money – its giving the very well off a bigger tax refund.
The Idiot in FL removing vax requirements and other RED States rushing to copy paste will make your rates go higher still.
First of all, I’m sorry you had to go through all that but glad you’ve recovered.
That being said, I’d be careful about buying travel insurance after the fact when you’re already on your trip. Read the fine print, but if you tried to use it, there’s a 99% chance your claim would have been denied as a pre-existing condition. Then you’d have the joy of fighting your regular health insurance company about whether the costs are “emergency care” or “out of network”.
Yes that’s my question as well.
It seems you received an initial IV antibiotics dose and prescription for continued oral treatment. How can a physician in Greece miss the signs and symptoms of GI bacterial infection? It’s considered an emergency. It’s a dangerous guessing game to assume it won’t develop into sepsis.
Maybe you should do more exercise and less eating. That must have been one powerful ultrasound to penetrate your blubber layer.
We had a similar experience when visiting New Zealand and my daughter came down with a terrible sickness that she couldn’t shake and couldn’t keep any food in her. The hospital we brought her to was very apologetic that we would have to pay full price for use of the emergency facilities since we weren’t residents and covered by their universal healthcare coverage. The IVs, overnight in the hospital and everything came to $380. It would have been at least 10x that in the US even with out insurance. I can’t believe how much more we pay for the privilege of having insurance in the US.
All law abiding Americans, 100%, have health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, or VA.
It is illegal under Obamacare not to have insurance or free coverage, like Medicaid.
Very popular to bash America
No. The first Trump administration struck down the ACA mandate that penalized not holding insurance. Now, over 25 million Americans don’t have health insurance. And even those who do have it still pay quite dearly out of pocket when they do seek healthcare.
Obamacare limits the maximum out of pocket that you have to pay. If you find you are really getting drained, then you can get Medicaid, particularly from the progressive states, like NY, CA, WA, MN.
That’s fake news. Medicaid is based solely on agi income. And the out of pocket limits are for people with insurance, do not include premiums and optional medical expenses.
So what, Michael? Optional expenses are just that, optional, not necessary. Ok, premiums? Every country has those but some are in the form of various taxes. Medicaid has ZERO premiums. VA also has ZERO.
What are you complaining about? Trump didn’t get rid of the mandate. He got rid of enforcement of the mandate. So you are still supposed to get insurance if you don’t want to be a law breaker. Follow Obama and buy some insurance.
Yea it definitely would not have paid out. He wasted $170.
This is demonstrably false, and if you’re curious, you can Google how many Americans are uninsured (it’s around 27 million, and is poised to rise dramatically due to newly enacted restrictions on Medicaid). The U.S. has by far the highest health care costs per capita, and generally unimpressive outcomes relative to other wealthy industrialized nations.
There’s little worse than being sick while you’re away from home — glad it all worked out.
@Andrew B: 100% correct.
If US healthcare has “unimpressive outcomes”, why do we see so many non-US citizens come to the US for procedures or to be seen by doctors here? There’s something the US must be doing right, regardless of cost for the treatment.
Wishing you a total and quick recovery. Along with numerous other hotel guests, I developed salmonella. The husband recovered in three days, I was still getting in room IV fluids but flew home only to pass out and be hospitalized. I was embarrassingly and painfully ill. ( Maria Isabel didn’t charge for the medical care ) .
For standing CBC blood counts with a differential I carry paperwork from my oncologist and have used those world wide but recently have purchased a travel health insurance policy ( $400 ) that was fortunately not needed .
Sorry to hear. As someone with emetophobia and digestive issues from time to time, I can only imagine the dread of having such illnesses, especially while travelling.
My last trip in March 2024 involved either food poisoning or some kind of virus. I was quite sick from 4pm until about 4am. We called paramedics in Munich (staying at the Hilton there) and they did some tests and gave me an IV. Later a doctor came by to give me some medicine.
I ended up not eating for 3+ days and lost 15 lbs and cut short our vacation. Pondering whether to try another vacation this winter. I have some intestinal issues, not related to the Munich illness and I’m at the point where I don’t know if I want to risk having issues on trips.
I would strongly recommend everyone to get travel insurance. The cost is pretty low compared to what getting sick could cost you.
I was just thankful this occurred in a hotel room and not onboard a plane.
Glad you are better. I am a practicing physician. In the USA. Greed has embedded itself into the healthcare system in the USA way beyond justification. Medicine is controlled by bean counters, bureaucrats and lawyers. Physicians are an afterthought. Before anyone starts trying to pin it on Physicians, look at your average medical bill. The cost for physicians might be 5% of the total bill. Medical organizations such as the AMA have sold out. The care you received was perfect. No overkill, no CYA. Gracious, prompt and compassionate. What a concept’
If you travel overseas frequently you should buy an annual travel insurance policy – and one that covers repatriation home if needed. A friend of mine had a stroke in SanFrancisco and eventually was flown back to Australia. Insurance covered that completely.
I am aware of a patient who needed medical evacuation after a complex emergency surgery while on a vacation – his recovery was long, but he was making good progress – except his tourist visa ran out. The hospital that he was evacuated to was in a city that was an antipode to the hospital where he had it surgery. 21 hours of flying, 4 fuel stops – he was glad he had travel insurance.
Pro Tip: If you have any medical issues, especially if you are a little older – buy travel insurance.
Pleas explain which destinations and transits during the evacuation . Rather confusing narrative .
Alert as if You have any right to confront someone for personal information when you have avoided answering any questions. ..!.. Troll. I got that from your MAGA music hero kid rock. It’s on his private jet. Class act you are.
To Michael and everyone here. Be careful answering any questions to the MAGA trolls. As desperate as DHS is now, I am certain that a bounty will be paid to the trolls for providing information they think can use. Choose your information to share carefully.
Great story. It’s so sad that we, the richest country in the history of the world, are the only first world country without socialized healthcare. That’s the reason that the biggest cause of declaring bankruptcy is medical expenses. Cuba has better healthcare than the USA – except for the American rich, who really do get the very best. That’s a huge indication that we have a problem.
Cuba does not have better healthcare than the USA. “Free” (paid by taxing people) doesn’t equal good.
Rich people in any country get better standards of healthcare as they can afford to go to private doctors.
In most first world countries people pay 4 to 10%, or more of their total income in taxes to support sub par “free” socialized medical models, some also don’t coverage medicine which is a major cost.
The US version of “Free” medical coverage for all, Obamacare or the ACA, increased the tax burden for every American that pays income or employment taxes and dramatically increased the cost of private health insurance for every American to subsize the fact that anyone can get “free” healthcare in the USA.
You can walk into just about any public access hospital in the USA and get treated, by the best healthcare in the world on average, regardless of the ability to pay, they even have signs telling you this and you typically are given paperwork that says it.
Job loss, divorce and medical problems (usually combined with ability to work and maintain a job) are the top reasons for personal bankruptcy in the USA.
@ Kyle — Did you file a claim with this insurance policy? It should have been denied. You cant insure an event that has already occurred.
Exactly. Normally they won’t cover known risks or pre-existing conditions.
So I would expect the claim to be denied, especially when they see there’s expenses from the same day as the policy was purchased.
Kyle would have been better off checking which credit cards might have emergency travel medical insurance. (If that’s even a thing in the US, it’s commonplace in Canada)
Thanks Kyle. This serves as a good reminder to check my annual policy to determine what documentation would be required for eventual reimbursement of costs. Seriously doubt I could track down anything after leaving the health care facility.
International Travel Insurance is cheap – you must have an underlying US policy (I have ACA policy). I used to use Seven Corners but now use Battleface. it is a must
What happened to the surgery that they told you was needed?
It would be very helpful for us to know if it is really possible to purchase travel insurance AFTER getting sick and receiving some of the “covered” care retroactively. If such a plan exists, everyone should consider buying it.
Good