What started out as a dream cruise became a nightmare hospital stay for one Atlanta-area couple:

"The two sailed out of Galveston, Texas, on Nov. 11 .... Days later, [Stephen Johnson] went into diabetic shock."

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the ship's doctor recommended that he be airlifted to a hospital in Progreso, Mexico. What happened next should come as no surprise to regular readers:

"When it came time to check out of the hospital, however, the two were not allowed to leave without paying their $14,000 hospital bill in full."

To be fair, the hospital is claiming that it's not the money, but the fact that, in their opinion,  Mr J is still too ill to travel. The good news is that actor/director Tyler Perry has stepped up to cover their bill.

There are actually a number of issues here, pretty much all of them falling on Mr J. For starters:

"Austin said her fiance does not have private insurance."

Why not?

After all, it's the law, right?

According to sources, Mr Johnson is 31 years old. We'll assume that he doesn't smoke, and that since he's wealthy enough to self-insure and pay for a cruise, doesn't qualify for a tax credit (aka "subsidy). A quick trip to 404Care.gov yields this (for example):

An Anthem Bronze plan with a $5,500 deductible is about  $11 per day. Seems pretty affordable to me.

Of course, we already know that most American health insurance ends at the border, which is why we always recommend an inexpensive travel medical plan. The good news is that that's also pretty affordable, as well. We'll assume a 10-day cruise:

Our friends at Global Underwriters offer a "Diplomat International" plan with $1,000,000 of coverage and a $2,500 deductible for $15.

Looks like Mr J chose poorly. 

Oh, and by the way: It took me less than five minutes to track down his age (already know he was from Sandy Springs) and run 404care.gov and travel medical quotes. All these so-called "journalists" had to do was call their own freaking agents. But here we are, doing the job "journalists" can't be bothered to do.