JenJen

Can anyone tell me what Medicare covers?
And what sort of things if any youll have to get private healthcare cover for?

If say speech therapy was needed would that be covered or would we need to pay privately for that?

Jen

comet555

You should have a look at the website, you should get lots of info there:
http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...c_covers.shtml

From the looks of the website it's not covered. I've copied the part that lists the services not covered:


What's not covered by Medicare?
Medicare does not cover such things as:

private patient hospital costs (for example, theatre fees or accommodation)
dental examinations and treatment (except specified items introduced for allied health services as part of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program)—contact Medicare for more information
ambulance services
home nursing
physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, eye therapy, chiropractic services, podiatry or psychology (except specified items introduced for allied health services as part of the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program)—contact Medicare for more information)
acupuncture (unless part of a doctor's consultation)
glasses and contact lenses
hearing aids and other appliances
the cost of prostheses
medicines (except for the subsidy on medicines covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme)
medical and hospital costs incurred overseas
medical costs for which someone else is responsible (for example a compensation insurer, an employer, a government or government authority)
medical services which are not clinically necessary
surgery solely for cosmetic reasons
examinations for life insurance, superannuation or membership of a friendly society
eye therapy

So...in short looks like you'd need to find private health care that would cover that. Keep in mind there may be a waiting period for benefits.

Vin 'n Bin

The only private insurance I have is for Ambulance cover, approx $30 a year with Medibank Private
My hearing aids are free because I am on a Disability pension ...I must add that I paid tax for many years until I could no longer work.
I used to have full private insurance which added up to a lot of money over the years and was rarely used
I mentioned in another post that last week I went to Joondalup for an MRI scan, because they bulk bill.

Catch

My boy got to see the speech therapist through school. Medicare covers general practice appointments for kids, but not adults (we pay $52 and get $30 odd back). Hospital appointments are not covered (pay the price and get so much back from medicare). Emergency treatment is free. Medicines are not free, pay for everything, even if gone to Emergency Department and they give you a prescription you have to go to pharmacy and pay for it.

We haven't got private insurance, but spent a fortune at hospitals with appointments. Any condition before applying for private insurance is not covered until after approx 12 months.

If you are taking our private insurance make sure you do it before 12 months of being here otherwise you end up paying more for the policy.

We have taken out ambulance cover ($80 a year) since this can be expensive if you call them out (we need it due to our lad doing moto X).

Vin 'n Bin

There are quite a lot of doctors (GP's) who 'bulk bill', like ours ..so no one has to pay anything

quoll

Some private medical insurance companies are now waiving the waiting time for most conditions - obviously pre-existing conditions are a different issue and there are special conditions which apply to them.

Generally, dental cover is not good in the public system and private medical cover will cover some of your dental work which can end up being very expensive. Therapies such as speech therapy can also be included in private cover.

Generally, medicare just covers services provided by doctors. Bulk billing doctors are the exception rather than the rule and you usually have to pay the doctor then go and claim back some of the bill from medicare.

JenJen

Great.....

So in short what your saying is we won't be able to get it covered by private insurance one we get there, and we'll prob have to pay a fortune if we're told this week this is what my son needs - fantastic .

Jen

Sandra

In short - yes

There is a large contingent that gripe about what is given by the system in the UK but after five years here and what we pay out privately for compared to what we got free in the UK is running at about $30K.

Daughter is deaf and the hearing care over here is good with free aids until she is 18 or leaves full time education but all the back up care of speech therapy and extras are paid for by ourselves. We have excellent private medical cover but does not come close to covering my prescriptions for glasses and eye care. I have crap eyes. Dental is pricey even with private medical but the orthodontic work my two kids got in the last three years topped 18K.

Now my husband has braces.......why.......after paying out so much he decided he never liked his teeth and wanted the opportunity as he was well used to paying $300 a month, when the kids care costs reduced he stepped in.

The other things that cost quite a bit, but to me are essential is the skin checks for cancer and subsequent biopsy and treatment. Husband has been diagnosed with melanoma and we need to follow up with that regularly as well as have the kids screened because of genetics.

Sorry I am not trying to be doom and gloom but Aus is not the UK and the costs can come as a shock for dental and eye care. Never mind getting into $100 a hour sessions for speech and further recommended processes.

Cheers Sandra

hollykimalan

My father is thinking of retiring to Oz near where we intend to move to.
He is type II diabetic with hypertension. Apart from that he is fit and well. He is on statins and metformin and the like. Does anyone know the cost of these if he takes out good health insurance?
Alan
x

Wol

FWIW we've had to spend a fortune on medical & dental bills: tens of thousands of $$ over three years. Medicare doesn't cover many things, the payment system is a national embarassment (or *should be* <g>) and you will end up rethinking the criticisms of the NHS!

However, if you are lucky with your GP you can get things like CT scans etc done the same day - which *is* better!

acbh2

We had thought about taking out private health insurance as my OH has to pay the medicare levy (over certain income you pay 1% to medicare) or you have to have private health insurance. He works for an insurance company so was cheaper but we find medicare to be great if you shop about for a good GP.

We go to a dr who bulk bills and neither us adults or kids had to pay when we visited him (have to pay for prescriptions, but you do privately anyway!!)

I also chopped the tip of my thumb almost off last week and thought I'd pay a fortune. A trip to the local emercency for a local anaestetic and stitches cost me nothing as again the dr bulk billed. In short you need to find a good dr who bulk bills.

As for speech therapy you may well have to pay for this but I would take a trip to a bulk billing dr before taking out any insurance.

We have only been here 3 months and had to see a Dr more than we did in the past 3 years in the UK

quoll

Dont panic about speech therapy for kids - it all depends on the state but there are speech therapy programs for school age kids, sometimes within the school setting and other times (like the ACT) as family based programs. They are free but sometimes there is a waiting list which could be almost as long as the waiting time for pre-existing conditions for private health insurance. If there is a serious speech problem then some states also have the provision for special ed support to assist the child in the educational setting but the child has to have a pretty severe impairment before they are eligible for that.

JenJen

Thanks everyone.

Given food for thought so to speak

Hopefully we'll find out how serious this is tomorrow and push to start with any assistance here first.

Thanks