Mizo

Hello Everyone,

I have 175 PR visa but I'm currently working overseas. I got married overseas and I submitted application for a Partner visa for my wife with subclass 309 (lodged in June 2011). She did medical examination (July 2011), yesterday we discovered she is pregnant

I googled and found that giving a birth in Australia is quite expensive, so, I ask for your advice please !

1- shall we inform the AUS embassy that she is pregnant ?
2- is with her visa type can be enrolled in Medicare?
3- does this could help in birth delivery costs?
4- and if its possible, will they accept enrolling her in Medicare while she is already pregnant?
5- which Aus city would be better in terms of cost for birth delivery?
6- and if there will be no Medicare for her , is it possible to have the birth in public hospital and how much does it cost?

Thank you very much

odyssey

I googled and found that giving a birth in Australia is quite expensive, so, I ask for your advice please !
If she is eligable for Medicare then giving birth is not expensive at all. I have had 3 children here and found the free care exceptionally good. No complaints at all - on my first birth I had private health, significant issues and they transferred me public straight away as private have no capability to deal with real issues. I had one in Sydney and 2 in Brisbane. All the hospitals were fantastic. First thing check out your medicare eligibility I would say. I was on a 136 visa which is now apparently the 175. I knwo lots of people who have enrolled in medicare already pregnant - if you are eligible you are eligible. Sorry I dont know about having babies outside of medicare

elice_in_oz

I'll second what Odissey wrote. Having a baby on Medicare is not expensive (mostly free actually)and I only had a good experience in Melbourne. If your wife is eligible for Medicare on a 175 or a spouse visa 309, then it'll be free.

HelenTD

Not all public hospitals are good; not all private hospitals are good. I had a bad experience in a public hospital and a good experience in a private hospital, both in Perth.

njk435

My daughter was born free (Should have called her Elsa ) in Darwin.

Royal Darwin is the public hospital up here and we were very happy with the whole pregnancy and birth experience.

I recommend emailing Medicare for information as they will know the facts as they stand today for your particular situation.

Link:
http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/about/contact.jsp

Mizo

I want to really thank you All for the valuable information,

in terms of Immigration as she is still in the process of visa application, shall we inform the embassy which we submitted her application that she became pregnant or its not needed, keep in mind the she already submitted her Medical checks and at this time she wasn't pregnant ?

also, If I may ask for clarification
how much time approximately does it take to complete the enrollment in Medicare , because i wish to know how much time we need to finalize before our baby born?

odyssey

Immigration are really quite nice when you deal with them in Australia. I would call immigration here and just ask them. You are supposed to notify change of circumstance but I wouldnt have thought you had to notify them as you dont actually have a baby yet. Best thing is to ask them directly though - I ask them all sorts of things all of the time regarding my family who are coming over. You dont even have to give your name if it makes you feel uncomfortable.

good luck