Canadian mom on vacation in Hawaiicharged $1 million dollars for preterm delivery

Via MailOnline

A Canadian mother has been billed nearly $1million for going into labor prematurely on a Hawaiian vacation.

Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel, from Saskatchewan, gave birth to her daughter Reece nine weeks early while on holiday in Hawaii last December.  ‘My water broke two days into our holiday,’ Huculak-Kimmel said, reports CBC.

Huculak-Kimmel, suffering from a ruptured membrane, said she tried everything possible to get back to Canada with her husband.

‘We looked at all avenues to trying to get medevac (an air ambulance) home,’ she said. ‘One medevac company would not fly me in my condition and the other one would only do it with a surgical team on board and still recommended me not travel. I spent six weeks on bed rest and then baby Reece was delivered by emergency C-section on December 10th.’

Her baby daughter had to be hospitalized for two months and the couple were hit with a $950,000 bill. Huculak-Kimmel told CBC Radio the insurance company denied her coverage because it said she had a pre-existing medical condition. Huculak-Kimmel had a bladder infection four months into her pregnancy, which caused bleeding long before the trip. Blue Cross argued that earlier bladder infection made her pregnancy high-risk.

She says, four days before her trip, her specialist gave her an ultrasound and cleared her to fly.

‘He saw no reason for me not to go,’ she says. ‘He felt that my pregnancy was stable.’

Huculak-Kimmel adds that when she bought the Blue Cross insurance, the salesperson told her she was OK to travel because she was less than 36 weeks pregnant.

‘I guess we thought we had done everything right,’ she says.

Specialists in Hawaii told the new mother that there is no cause for a ruptured membrane, she says, although they speculated that the long flight could have been a factor. In a letter to the family Blue Cross denied payment and wrote: ‘We are unable to provide coverage for any medical expenses incurred for Ms. Huculak’s baby’. They added ‘please note that Ms. Huculak’s travel policy expired on Nov. 9, 2013.’

Huculak-Kimmel told CTV News the Blue Cross pamphlet had no fine print explaining any rules for pre-existing conditions.

She said the family is now trying to decide if they should fight Blue Cross, declare bankruptcy