澳女婴在加早产 医疗费达百万美元

Australia's foreign affairs minister is looking into the case of a Sydney couple stuck with a million dollar hospital bill after their daughter was born in Vancouver last August.

John Kan and Rachel Evans had taken out travel insurance and extra coverage for Evans' pregnancy without realizing the policy would not cover the birth of the baby.

They were about to return to Australia after their B.C. vacation when Evans went into premature labour at the airport.

Piper Kan stayed in the neo-natal ward of the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre for three months and the bill ended up being about $1 million.

Australian media reports the couple negotiated a payment plan with the hospital at about $300 a month, which would take 278 years to pay off.

Evans tells the Herald Sun newspaper they don't begrudge the bill because they have a healthy daughter.

"Financially, it’s not so good but you can't put a price on it," she told the newspaper.

It's unclear what support Australia’s foreign ministry could offer, but the Herald says the country's Dept. of Health and Ageing will reportedly investigate whether it could pay the bill.

Evans said she is grateful for any help the government might be able to provide.

"We don't feel our mistake was someone else's responsibility but obviously it is quite a large amount so any assistance we can get would be helpful.”

Australian residents can get treatments deemed medically necessary under reciprocal agreements with 11 countries, but Canada is not one of those countries.

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

悉尼一位女性去年八月在加拿大温哥华产女，但夫妇两人却因此被迫支付高达百万美元的医疗费用。澳大利亚外交部长正着手调查此事。

约翰•坎和雷切尔•埃文斯已经取出旅游保险和怀孕保险金，但没料到政策并不覆盖生育费用。

在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省旅游结束回国时，埃文斯突然在机场早产。

他们的女儿派帕•坎在该省妇幼医院和健康中心的新生儿病房里住了三个月，最终的医疗费用高达大约100万美元。

据澳大利亚媒体报道，这对夫妇和医院就一份支付计划进行了协商，若按每月归还大约300美元计算的话，需要278年才能付清。

埃文斯告诉《太阳先驱报》，他们不会因为账单感到怨恨，因为他们的女儿健康地出生了。

她告诉该报：“从经济上说超级不划算，但顺利产女无法用价钱衡量。”

现在还不清楚澳大利亚外交部会提供什么帮助，但《太阳先驱报》称，据报道，医疗健康及老年关怀部门将对是否支付账单进行调查。

埃文斯说，她对政府可能会提供的任何帮助都非常感激。

“我们不认为我们的错误是其他人的责任，但很明显账单数额巨大，所以对我们的任何帮助都很有用。”

根据澳大利亚与11个国家之间的互惠协议，该国居民在被认为有必要接受治疗时，都会得到救治，但加拿大不在这些国家之列，须自行负担任何紧急医疗成本。

Vocabulary:

stuck with: 被迫接受，无法摆脱

coverage: 保额，承保范围

premature labour: 早产