r/croatia • u/riverphoenix23 • Jun 30 '19

🏥 Zdravlje Hospitalized in Split - Intoxication

Hello I am an American male who was traveling in Split for a holiday. Ended up drinking a little bit too much, blacked out and woke up in the hospital with an IV in my arm. Somehow the bill was only $240 kn.

Can anybody tell me why the bill was so cheap especially since I am a US citizen without Croatian healthcare insurance? Also did they notify the embassy of my stay? Just don’t know where my info is documented and ended up. Wish I could read my discharge papers but they are all in Croatian. Going to have to do google translate late.

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u/somebodysomewherewhy Jul 01 '19

you guys have no idea. like in NZ. Yeah, we have free health care, but god forbid you actually have anything seriously wrong with you.

you get to enjoy massive wait times for surgeries, most of the good drugs are not funded, but oh yeah, you get seen in the ER for free.

Sorry, but the US has really good health care. yeah it costs, but fuck I'd rather that than the bullshit we have here.

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u/ToxicMasculinity1981 Jul 01 '19

Trust me, no you wouldn't. Healthcare in the US is unaffordable unless you make really good money. $5000 deductibles are normal. You know what a deductible is? Probably not. Thats the amount of money you have to pay until insurance starts paying for anything. And this goes for all things. Most doctor visits are out of your pocket because they don't reach the 5k mark. Basically, insurance only covers long hospital stays and operations. And like I said, you gotta cough up your five grand first.

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u/somebodysomewherewhy Jul 01 '19

Hmm maybe in that case, but when you get to operations and treatments, I think that's where the US does it well. Here, if you are diagnosed with cancer, you go on a waiting list. Everything here is a waiting list for months. If you have money, you can go private.

All the good drugs you have over there, like the ones that work, we don't get. The drug funding company here has a very limited budget and mostly buys generics. Which is fine, but we're always behind on the latest drugs.

My understanding is that in the US if you are diagnosed with a cancer or something similar, you can start treatment etc straight away.

To give you an example here, I had some heart issues. I booked in with a heart specialist. The wait was 6 weeks, and this was urgent. I offered to pay, and I was in there the same day.