Jopad

When your visiting Australia can visitors register for medicare.

We went on hols last year ( July - August ) from Brisbane to Cairns, and unfortunately caught the gastric bug which was going around.
We had to call the ambulance while on maggie island to take our 5 year old to the medical center, and was asked if we had 'medicare'. I told them no but we had travel insurance.

We heard no more, and never had to sign for anything so you can imagine our shock when a $888.00 ambulance bill landed on the doorstep last september. We contacted our travel insurance who gave us a claim form which we filled in and returned.

Now heres the problem, they said we should of registered with medicare when we arrrived in oz ( page 16 smallprint ). I have since paid the bill as I didn't want this to crop up on our visa application ( £404.00 ).

Someone at the Queensland ambulance service told me that I was unable to get medicare as we were only visiting.

Has anyone ever come across this before and the insurance company to avoid are 'PRIMARY INSURANCE' which we got from the money supermarket website.

However I would like to praise the Magnetic Island medical center staff and Kerry the ambulance driver who really took great care of my family, especially as it was on a sunday evening.

thanks

Pad

Pollyana

You don't need to register with Medicare when visitng from the UK and other countries covered by the reciprocal healthcare scheme. In fact medicare would not register you even if you had gone to see them.Emergency medical bills are covered by the NHS under the reciprocal scheme.
Don't know about the ambulance cover though - Queenslanders pay for that on their electric bills (don't ask! ) so you certainly wouldn't have been able to pay that.

kurrikurri

My mother-in-law ended up in a hospital in New South Wales with kidney failure early part of last year, when we were all out on holiday. She ended up in the ICU unit for a week.

The UK and Australia has a reciprocal agreement with each other, medical treatment, ending up in hospital etc etc, but the ambulance was extra and we had to foot the bill. In hospital, the staff asked to see our holiday insurance, which we had, but I said we were from the UK and we had a reciprocal agreement and then they asked to see mother-in-laws passport, proof we were from the UK. That was it, no more questions asked, but we did have to pay $340 for the ambulance.

At the end of the day, we werent that bothered, because it saved her life, but if we had claimed it from her travel insurance, she may have been penalised with that another year! Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

The medical service were fantastic. I couldnt fault them whatsoever. Every check imaginable was done to her.

A friend of ours ended up in hospital a couple of years ago, up in Mackay, and their ambulance bill was something like $800. His daughter-in-law rang and asked them to justify it, and it came down by half! Not sure how that worked, but I suppose if you know the perks and maybe someone querying it?

kurrikurri

I wouldnt have thought you could have applied for Medicare? People who go out on a Temporary Visa to live in Australia can't, but when you apply to live permanently in Australia you go on the medicare system, so I would think you cannot go on the medicare system when travelling??

Jopad

thanks for your reply guys,

I have just had another look at the exclusions and it says that we had to have 'enrolled' with medicare.

Not only do i find this unusual, but wher would you go to register in the first place. By the way my mother in law also had to call the ambulance earlier that morning and only had to pay the exceess.

I think we just had a crap insurance company, I still feel really p***ed off with them as they take your money and then wriggle out when you try to claim.

Is there anyone who works for medicare who can confirm that we are unable to enroll


thanks

ray2gill

[QUOTE=Jopad;5781276]When your visiting Australia can visitors register for medicare.



Look at this Medicare link for UK Visitors http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/migrants/visitors/uk.shtml#overview

Pootle

Hi,
You look like you didn't have to pay for the medical centre - just the ambulance? Medicare and ambulance services are run totally separately. Medicare website says: "If you are a resident of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Norway or the Netherlands you are covered for the duration of your approved visit to Australia." Also: "If you will be receiving treatment you can enrol at Medicare offices throughout Australia. If you receive treatment before you enrol, Medicare benefits will be back paid for eligible visitors." My f-i-l registered last year when he needed medical treatment here.
(from http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...itors/uk.shtml )

Queensland Ambulance service will bill those people who do not live in Queensland. See: http://www.ambulance.qld.gov.au/subscribe/faq.asp
This states that : "Additionally if you have health insurance, you may be covered for QAS costs. Your health insurance provider should be able to provide advice in this regard."

So I would be asking your health insurance why they are not covering this bill for you? It has nothing whatsoever to do with whether you enrolled for medicare or not, as medicare would not have covered this charge for you.

Good luck!

Ruth

kitty4

My mum is here at the moment for 6 months on a visitors visa from the UK and has been before for an extended holiday. Both times she enrolled at medicare and got a medicare card under the reciprocal agreement - she needs to go for blood pressure checks and refill her prescription as can only bring 3 months worth of medication from the UK. We didn't know she could enrol at first until a doctor here told her she could so we went to medicare and it was easy, no problem. Doesn't cover ambulances though - they are seperate, if we had to call one for mum we would ust have to foot the bill, although OH and I pay for our cover on the electric bill as polly says.

Jopad

Hi Ruth,

thanks for that information, I just need to get something in writing that states that medicare would not cover the ambulance.

I have sent an e-mail to the QAS asking the above.

cheers

Pat

quoll

Our experience is the same as Kitty4. My parents used to come for 6 months at a time and would go and register at medicare for the period. My dad ended up in hospital with a slight stroke on one visit and was treated very well including a visit to a speech therapist before he went home. Mum had to visit the doctor a few times with no trouble.

Ambulances aren't free, they are a whole different issue - in ACT people take out special ambulance cover. Nothing to do with medicare.

Jopad

thats what I thought but I will probably need something in writing from QAS. Out of curisosity, where is the medicare place that you enroll with. What happens if you have an accident as you leave the airport. I think the insurance company are pulling a fast one.

datamile

Just to add to the confusion, I believe QLQ ambulances are free if you live in the state.

kitty4

If something happened before you have enrolled with medicare, you can keep the bill and get back the medicare portion later I think. Mum had to pay the GP she first saw the full price but took the reciept to medicare when the doctor told her she should register there and she got the medicare rebate. If it was an emergency and you were taken to hospital, I think as someone else said, if you can give evidence of your visitor status and nationality, you wouldn't pay anything in a public hospital - medicare would deal with it directly with the hospital. Ambulances however, are different and I expect that unless you had travel/medical insurance, you would have to foot the bill, as would an Australian Citizen who chose not to pay for ambulance cover regularly. Does sound like the insurance company should pay this - it's nothing to do with medicare or reciprocal agreements. The medicare offices where you enrol, claim with reciepts etc are all over the place, mainly in big shopping centres around here.

kitty4

What are QLQ ambulances?

datamile

Ops = QLQ = QLD, queensland