One man’s lucky win ended up turning into a big disaster after he found himself lumped with a huge bill.
His luck went overboard.
A Minnesota man won a free weeklong cruise vacation to the Caribbean for him and his girlfriend, only to catch the flu onboard and get slapped with an eye-popping $47,000 medical bill.
Mike Cameron and his girlfriend Tamra Masterman won a free Norwegian cruise trip from the Grand Casino Hinckley that set sail out of Miami on Jan. 5, he told The Post Thursday night.
But what started as a dream trip to the tropical destination quickly went awry when Cameron, of Braham, came down with the flu.
The ailing passenger sought treatment at the medical center onboard the Norwegian Encore ship and recovered three days later.
As the couple’s tour of the Caribbean came to an end, Cameron was shocked to learn he was stuck with the nearly $50,000 medical bill.
“I was just flabbergasted by the whole thing. I guess I am just used to the medical system in the United States. I can’t believe it happened,” he said.
The bill came as a shock as crew members assured him not to worry as he received treatment.
“One lady in the medical ward that said that he had the traveler’s insurance and that meant $20,000 of coverage,” he recalled.
The cruise line maxed out two credit cards Cameron had on file and he still owes $21,000, he added.
The couple had purchased travel insurance from the cruise line that covered expenses of up to $20,000 and have health insurance — but Cameron is stuck in a holding pattern, with each claiming the other is responsible for the bill, he told Fox 9.
“The traveler’s insurance doesn’t want to pay it until we run it by our health insurance. The health insurance doesn’t want to pay it because it’s abroad,” Masterman explained.
Stuck in limbo, Cameron isn’t sure how he’ll afford the steep bill.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to pay them off, I’m going to have to, but, I don’t know how,” he told Fox 9.
The couple said the bill accompanied a letter from Norwegian stating that its pricing was “closely comparable to other cruise lines and is what we believe to be fair and reasonable.”
Cameron has one piece of advice for travelers after his ordeal.
“We want people to be aware, if you go on a cruise make sure you got good traveler’s insurance,” he warned.
“Once you are out on international waters, it’s a whole different story.”
A spokesperson for Norwegian said the company was unable to share details of Cameron’s care due to patient privacy laws, but stressed that its internal team reviewed his “necessary medical procedures and resulting expenses.”
“We are committed to providing quality medical services and each of our ships is equipped with a state-of-the-art onboard medical center, staffed with highly qualified physicians and nurses, to provide care for both guests and crew while at sea,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We follow guidelines for our medical facilities provided by CLIA in conjunction with the American College of Emergency Physicians.”
