Canadian couple hit with $950K bill after premature birth in US face bankruptcy

Canadian parents hit with a bill of almost $1 million from a US hospital after their baby was born prematurely on vacation in Hawaii are now facing possible bankruptcy. Their story provoked a social media storm with many people offering to help.

Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel was six months pregnant when she travelled to Hawaii with her husband. She had consulted before the trip with her doctor, who gave her the go-ahead to travel. Things went wrong when her water broke two days into the trip. Jennifer was taken to the hospital by air ambulance and spent six weeks on bed rest before her baby girl was born by emergency caesarean section last December. Her daughter Reece, born nine weeks prematurely, spent two months in intensive care. Huculak-Kimmel was hit with a $950,000 bill, which the insurer refused to cover, citing a "pre-existing condition" allegedly not declared by the mother-to-be before the trip.

"Blue Cross said that because I had a bladder infection at four months and hemorrhaged because of that, that they would not cover the pregnancy," Huculak-Kimmel told CBC.