Sunday, August 31, 2008

Take care of your health care

by guest blogger Mac

I learned a valuable lesson twenty years ago, bumming around in Spain, busking with my guitar for my daily beer tokens, and generally thinking I was immortal. Disaster struck, I broke my ankle and ended up in a Spanish hospital. Of course, my hand to mouth lifestyle left no room for hospital treatment, and I was forced to hop out of the hospital with a vast on my left leg, and no crutch to hold me up as I could not afford to pay the deposit for one. I hopped down the road for several miles to my apartment, extremely exhausting.

Since this event, I always make sure I have adequate health insurance when living in a foreign country, us ex-pats are really lucky these days, many companies offer ex-pat friendly health and travel insurance, usually at a fairly low cost. I feel every person who is living outside of their own nation should do something to make sure they are protected in the event of a major medical emergency taking place, at the very least you should have a strategy planned for repatriation should the medical situation require it.