Turkish holiday ends in insurance nightmare
Published 01 July, 2008, 12:18
Viktor Listochkin was overjoyed when the local football club he has worked for all his life rewarded him with a free trip to Turkey. Now, he is bedridden in a Turkish hospital, unable to speak after spending more than ten days in a coma. His wife has had to return to Russia.
She gets news about her husband’s condition in a daily phone call. Olga Listochkina recalls the moment she realised something was wrong.
“Viktor began to feel unwell. At first we thought it was food poisoning. But as soon as we got him to the hospital, they rushed him to the emergency room,” Olga recalls.
Viktor had suffered an intestinal haemmorage. And the bad news did not stop there. Although he had standard insurance, he was only covered for up to $15,000 of medical costs.
He now owes more than $30,000. And the figure is growing by nearly $1,000 a day – money his family cannot afford.
Personal insurance manager Irina Yartseva says people who fall ill abroad are often left in a desperate situation.
“If insurance doesn't cover the medical expenses, then the relatives' only hope is to inform the local consulate and hope that they can use their resources to pay for treatment and get the patient back to his homeland,” Yartseva says.
As Turkey is the top destination for Russian tourists, such holiday horror stories are becoming more common.
More than 100 Russian tourists are due to return from Turkey on July 1 after falling victim to a holiday company that went bust. The Turkish company, ‘Vasco’, didn't pay the hotels where they were staying and the tourists were asked to pay themselves or leave.
Last year, a Russian couple was forced to leave their prematurely born newborn baby in hospital for a fortnight because of unpaid medical bills.
The country’s top public body says stricter insurance regulation is needed. Aleksandr Sokolov – a Public Chamber representative – believes the current Russian legislation is outdated. He says it was drafted before mass tourism took off.
The travel restrictions imposed during Communist times means people in the new Russia are hungry to go abroad.
But the learning curve has been steep for the operators, the legislators, the insurers as well as the tourists.
discuss it
