Ranger

is dental treatment and healthcare (prescriptions) free in oz if your pregnant ?

etlniwd

No.

Don't know about prescriptions but my wife is pregnant and she pays 100% of dental costs and about 37.5% of GP fees (you pay in full and then claim 62.5% back from the government later). Anything in the hospital is free.

The GP thing is a pain in the arse. Why you have to pay for your treatment and then claim 62.5% of it back at a later date is a mystery to me. I don't think they are clever enough to just charge the patients 37.5% at the time of the visit. Red tape is a big thing here - it keeps people in jobs.

The Tooth Fairy

The pharmacy charges about 1/3rd of a scheduled drugs' price to the patient and 2/3 to the Government.

With GPs you have three choices:
1. Pay the full fee,
2. Pay the full fee and claim about 2/3 from Medicare,
3. See a "bulk biller" and pay nothing.

etlniwd

So I can go to my doctor and say 'I choose option 3' then? I don't think so. It's a bloody confusing system and the Australian government needs to start living in the 21st century and sort it out.

Modigliana

I hope the pommie bastard gives you his password, so the bastard tradition can live on.

You are the obvious candidate for the "passing of the bastard torch".

etlniwd

Yeah, and you're not one of Pommie Bastard's alter egos ? Right
What ever happened to Megalania and Wilf ?

Megalania

You use my name in vain?

janeyray

A friend of mine is due to have her baby anytime now. She went to a doctors that 'Bulk Bills', this she meant she payed for nothing (the doctor who bulk bills charges Medicare). All her scans and hospital checks were also bulked billed by the hospital to Medicare meaning she had no payment to make.
Hope this helps?

PeteY

TF...

Are there still lots of bulk billers around? My wife has'nt been in aus for 2 years, but she said that back then there was a worry that a lot of the bulkbill places were closing.

Cheers

The Tooth Fairy

Bulk-billers dwindle in rural Victoria

dotty

In a word NO. And dentists here charge like demented bulls.

You can however have your baby born under the Public Hospital System. You can visit an clinic for your check ups, usually this would involve seeing a different doc most times and waiting up to 3 hours even tho you have an appt. Essential scans are free. Hospital care will be a shared ward with a midwife, specalist will come in if you have probs of course. Public system is very overused so even with a first baby you will be "out in one or two days". Friend with 3 kids all with chicken pox just got released with new bub within 24 hours and the poor mite only weighed 5lb.
One main problem most of my mates have had with Public is the 'dregs' you end up in with, trust me there are some very rough as guts types out here and I for one would not want to be in the next bed to them just after having a bub.


Private tho will provide Own Obstetrician, own room, longer stay gourmet food and in my one private here chandeliars, very useful I'm sure.

Just bear in mind with any medical matters here there are two very different classes, Private and Public and Class in OZ is a very big thing. Money talks here.

Megalania

Trust a nasty nasal little snotty cockney to see the world through a class prism. Crawled out from the bottom of your dung heap and feel the need to unload?

Would not occur to you that Public is a Government guarantee of basic health care. You like frills, you pay.

pommie bastard

True teeth are a luxury so it's only right that the dentist should aim to be a muti-millionaire by the age of 30 , plus Doctors need every cent bugger Medicare lets see the dosh , Health by Wealth?

jah4reds

Dentist you have to pay. For Doctors you have to pay up front, and get the medicare proportion as a rebate afterwards. Bulk billing is virtually disappearing.

Dentists - if you take private medical cover, on some private medical plans you will be able to claim back a proportion of the dental costs - but there are waiting limits and maximum rebate amounts applied, depending on the plan. But dentists are expensive here - if you want any extra work doing, it's probably best to do it in the UK. Also we have found that they are not quite as technically advanced here but are catching up fast (or maybe this is just Brisbane?).

Doctors - on a personal note, our doctors do not bulk bill but we have found that in almost all cases our childrens visits have been charged at medicare cost (ie pay up-front and after the medicare rebate our fee is effectively $0). So it pays to look for a 'good' doctors.

Oh, and keep all medical receipts to claim back a tax rebate at the end of each if the total is $1250 and over.

Good luck,
AndyH.

dotty

Do you know Megs, I reckon OZ is far more obsessed with class than some snotty little cockney like me.

I have never seen a Country so divided up into zillions of Characterless Suburbs each with its own tag as to who can live there. Same with schools, how far will most here go to get into a private school, show me an Aussie who would not kill to have a BMW, what is the catch word in home products here European. Its the most suburban place in the world. Outback most dont even know where it is.

I did my 15 hours on a trolley in a Public Hospital here, then I got a bed next to some withdrawing junkie and an incontinent 93 year old lady who nobody had time to help. Now I pay my Private Cover, still have to Pay medicare cover, and still end up with Bills every time we get sick. Do you know that in an area of 220,000 people the only cancer treatment centre is Private? Not insured travel 1.5 hours to get your radiation and 1.5 hours back again. Health system far from Perfect.