The baby toddling around, smiling, clapping, and playing with everything in sight gives no indication that almost a year earlier, she was fighting for her life in a Hawaiian Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
“She’s never really missed a beat,” said her dad, Darren Kimmel.
Baby Reece – who is officially a U.S. citizen – was born nine weeks early while her parents, Kimmel and Jennifer Huculak, were on vacation in Hawaii. The story may be familiar by now: the two purchased travel insurance from Saskatchewan Blue Cross before going to Hawaii while Huculak was six months pregnant. She was cleared by her doctor and was under the impression that she was covered by Blue Cross insurance. Two days into the vacation, Huculak’s water broke. This was followed by six weeks of bed rest in Oahu until Reece was born in December of 2013.
Two weeks into the stay, the couple was denied coverage by Saskatchewan Blue Cross on the grounds of a pre-existing condition: a bladder infection that Huculak had two months earlier that led to some hemorrhaging, but had since cleared up. The couple appealed and was denied again, even with a letter from their specialist in Canada saying the pregnancy complication couldn’t have been predicted.
“After the last letter, we knew we were on our own and we knew we were stuck; we couldn’t move,” Kimmel said. “We had no other choice but to just sit and stay.”
And after that, they could do nothing as their bills climbed. $161,000 for Huculak’s bed rest. $600,000 for the NICU. Specialist bills were $57,000. The medevac flight was $44,000. They had to pay for everything, resulting in a bill of about $950,000.
“Every tissue you use is marked down,” Kimmel said.
The insurance pamphlet Kimmel and Huculak got said the following was covered:
Emergency medical care benefits up to $5 million, travel assistance in case of an emergency, hospital services, accommodation, healthcare professionals, physicians, paramedical services, private RN, prescriptions, treatments, diagnostic services, emergency dental care ambulance, medical evacuation by air ambulance, friend/family hospital visits, medical attendant, meals and accommodation.
But all that was negated by the pre-existing condition.
Blue Cross found out about the bladder infection because the company needed access to medical records in order to give coverage. Huculak said they never asked about pre-existing conditions initially.
“We thought we did everything right,” Huculak said. “I went to a specialist where I had an ultrasound four days before we flew down there, he gave me the good to go, he thought my pregnancy was stable by the ultrasound, we bought the Blue Cross travel insurance, the sales representative that sold us the insurance said we were covered, we were insured, not to worry about it.”
When they realized Blue Cross wouldn’t cover the bills, the couple explored every avenue to get home. One medevac company absolutely wouldn’t fly Huculak, and another didn’t want to. They looked at booking a commercial flight, but if something happened onboard it would put Huculak’s health at risk.
The couple and baby Reece are now healthy, but their fight with Blue Cross continues.
“They’ve been terrible,” Kimmel said. “Emails on a Friday at 5 o’clock is what they were famous for. I’m sure they hit send on the email as they were running out of the office because they knew that they’d get a phone call. That drove us nuts. It happened about three Fridays in a row, and then you have to worry all weekend and have nobody to call … They haven’t done anything nice at all. They weren’t, as far as I’m concerned, professional.”
Some of Kimmel’s relatives told Huculak that she had nothing to lose by going to the media, resulting in a media circus that they were not expecting.
“It’s very overwhelming,” Huculak said. “We thought it would air once or twice, it would get the word out there, people would be aware that they have to double check all of their policies and it would go away. We did not expect this kind of reaction.”
It began with CTV Saskatoon and snowballed from there. As of last week, the two had done 60 interviews and they still weren’t finished. Stories about them have appeared on CTV, CBC, Global, Canada AM, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, and the Regina Leader Post. The story has also appeared on Gawker and Reddit.
“The support’s unbelievable,” Kimmel said. “It’s just never ending and it’s overwhelming. I’ve used ‘overwhelming’ way too many times in the last few days, but there’s no other way to really describe it.”
The couple has received offers from lawyers to take up the case for free, and have also received offers from people to start crowdfunding for them. Kimmel and Huculak let a woman from Manitoba start a crowdfunding campaign at GoFundMe.com, which is up to over $14,000 in the five days it’s been in existence. If Blue Cross doesn’t pay the bill, Huculak and Kimmel will use the money to pay the hospital. If they do pay the bill, the couple will donate the money to the NICU in Saskatoon. They’re adamant that they don’t want to take anyone’s money for personal gain.
“That’s not what this fight is about,” Kimmel said. “It was never about any personal gain on our side. We wanted to let Blue Cross know that we felt they wronged us and getting into the public eye was a great way to do it, and it’s turned out fantastic … We want no personal gain out of this. We’ve never asked for it. We’re hoping that people can donate to a good cause and pay the hospital that looked after us. They did a job and they deserve to get paid. As far as we’re concerned, they don’t deserve to get paid by other people, they deserve to get paid by Blue Cross.”
For now, the couple will wait to see if Blue Cross will step up. In a press release, Blue Cross said they documented nine specific events - all related to the original bladder infection - in a letter they sent to Huculak and Kimmel that prevent them from accepting the claim.
“There are more facts related to this story that prevent us from reversing our decision,” said Arnie Arnott, president and CEO of Saskatchewan Blue Cross, in the press release. “The challenges facing this family are extraordinary and difficult. As such, we urge Ms. Huculak to have our decision reviewed by an independent ombudsman ... A review by (an ombudsman) is free of charge and Saskatchewan Blue Cross will cover any costs incurred by Ms. Huculak preparing her claim for review by the ombudsman.”
Despite the capricious situation, Huculak and Kimmel have managed to maintain their composure.
“What do you do?” Kimmel said. “It’s the hand we’ve been dealt and we’re trying to deal with it the best we know how.”
