A Manitoba man who received emergency medical treatment south of the border is no longer stuck paying a hefty bill.
Robin Milne, 60, cried tears of joy after coming out of a meeting with Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen who informed him that his entire United States medical bill has been taken care of, though Milne remains on the hook for travel costs.
Goertzen drove down to the United States and secured an agreement clearing Milne’s hospital bill.
Milne is still expected to pay $48,000 in transportation costs, but the health minister will continue discussions to work on that bill as well.
Robin Milne – who lives a few kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border – suffered a heart attack in October 2016 and sought treatment in a Minnesota emergency room.
The province of Manitoba has an emergency care deal with two hospitals in Minnesota. However, Milne said the U.S. doctor ordered him to get a heart stent at another facility in North Dakota, where Manitobans are not covered by the deal.
Months later, he received a medical bill totaling $118,000.
Milne said the decision to transfer him to the North Dakota hospital came after he waited 90 minutes to be transferred to a Winnipeg hospital for the procedure.
He said Thursday this is a tremendous weight off of his chest not having this enormous bill hovering over him.
It was on Feb. 1 the Manitoba government initially said it does not have the authority to make such payments.
With files from Jon Hendricks.
