Why I won't buy Overseas Health Insurance

July 29th, 2010
Location: Lovelace Westside Hospital ASCU, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hi everyone. I am pleased to announce that my ankle surgery went really well. I am home with a stash of happy pills and a 40oz Arby's Diet Peach Iced Tea at my side while I type this. Thanks for all your notes/Facebook messages/phone calls/texts with your well wishes.

This is one of those blogs where the "brush your teeth and save" crowd will absolutely disagree with me.

This blog is about health insurance while traveling. More specifically, it's about NOT getting health insurance while traveling. Lately I have been thinking about how awesome it would be to be an illegal immigrant inside of the United States. In addition to not having to pay income tax, state taxes, property taxes, social security taxes, Medicare taxes, Medicaid taxes, vehicle taxes and car insurance, any medical malady I come across I can simply lie about who I am, not be subject to any sort of collections and receive any medical care I need for free. All I have to do is stop what I am doing, and visit my local emergency room or urgent care center. If given the opportunity, I think I should be irresponsible and enjoy free care at the expense of taxpayers in another country. I figure if I have been subsidizing free care for illegal immigrants here, then it is time for me to enjoy the same services and rights overseas in another country.

Well, if I know countries that have socialized medicine programs focus on providing care rather than administrative costs, I should be able to walk in. I know several people who had minor injuries in Australia, Great Britain and Ireland who walked right into the hospital received excellent care and walked out. Why would I worry about these expenses if I knew I was going to be covered? Further, if I know I can always hitch a plane and ride into a country with socialized medicine to receive care, why would I bother with the purchase of insurance? Additionally, if the facilities are absolutely filthy and not up to par, wouldn't I just end up catching a plane back to the United States if my condition were stable anyway?

Here's another consideration: Any sort of financial or contractual obligation I enter into overseas cannot be enforced in a United States courtroom. Simply because I have US citizenship does not make that contract enforceable here. For a contract to be enforceable overseas it must be a contract signed into and agreed upon by the parties to have US courts enforce the contract. That's required for any type of collection activity to take place. So, even though a debt may exist overseas, collecting it here in the USA may be another matter altogether.

I often wonder if the Overseas Health Insurance providers know this and simply charge the fee to make dumb Americans pay it anyway. I look forward to your comments on this.

- Brad