djlewington

Nov 19 2007, 02:05 PM

Hi Al

Cheers 4 that. Just noticed it's 40 degs outside, maybe hubby will let me put on the air con!!

djlewington

Nov 19 2007, 09:00 AM

Hello

Sorry about this but I must admit that I am a bit slow at catching on to things...and when people have started to talk about medicare I get this glazed expression :blink: across my face and switch off because I don't really understand it.

Can someone explain in simple terms what is covered by Medicare for free and what you have to pay for? Do you really need Health Insurance and why has my sister in law advise me to get in within a year of getting here or your premiums are higher. What Company have you got your Health Insurance with and what are the Premiums (if you don't mind saying!!).

Any advice is appreciated.

Fiona

kirsty&al

Nov 19 2007, 11:40 AM

The health system is different to the UK and can be a bit confusing. It can take a while to know how to work the system.

Medicare covers you for free hospital and accident emergency. You can get free GP services if you go to a bulk biller or you can pay to see your GP and claim most of the cost back from Medicare (e.g. you pay $55 to the doctor and you claim back $32.10). I've not been to a bulk billing doctor so I'm not sure how you find them. I normally don't pay for repeat visits to the doctor if it's for the same condition. Things like scans and tests work in a similar way in that you have to pay for them and then claim most of the money back from medicare. I have a regular 6 months blood check which I don't pay for.

When you arrive you join medicare and you get a card that you'll be asked for when you need anything medical. Typically you join 10 days after arrival (time needed for records to come from immigration) but you are covered from arrival. I went to a medicare office to sign up.

Medicare is paid for through a tax, 1.5% of your earnings (wages, interest, etc...). If you earn more than a certain amount ($50k as an individual, $100k plus $1k per child as a family) then you are liable to another 1% tax called the medicare levy. You can avoid the medicare levy by taking out (approved) private health insurance.

I you take out private insurance after age 30 then the premium is loaded with 2% for each year over 30 you were when you started. So if you start private healthcare at 40 then your premiums will be 20% higher. However, for migrants, if you join within a year of arrival then then you don't get hit with the 2%/year loading. (Extra notes: the 2%/year is capped at 70%, i.e. if you start at 65, and is removed after 10 years of cover. I think that after starting you can miss up to 2 years without being hit with the loading.)

Whether you get private health cover or not is a personal decision. I've got it because I would have been hit with the medicare levy (the extra 1%). We get quite a bit off dental and optical and it has bizarrely made standard dental work cheaper for me here, than in the UK. I would say it's only worth getting private health cover if you're going to get hit with the extra levy.

If you do have private health cover then you have to be careful with things called gaps. If you are treated privately, the private health care often only covers you up to what medicare thinks the service is worth and you have to pay any extra if the consultant charges more. This can mean you pay more than if you had gone public. If you're going to have treatment and you're going to use your private health care then try and find a place where the charges are known. Talk to your private health care provider about this. They may be able to find you a suitable place where you won't be hit with extra bills. In some cases you may want to deny having private health cover and have the condition treated under the public system. We denied having the cover when our last child was born because we wanted mid-wife delivery. If you mention private health cover then they'll probably wheel in a consultant with a plummy-voice and loads of machines that go bling.

Finally, if you spend more than $1500 on medical bill through the year (and you can include your children's bills) then you can claim a 20% tax rebate on the excess over $1500. This is worth bearing in mind if you have a lot of expensive dental work as you may want to get it done withing the same tax year, if you can.

Note that amulances are not free in Victoria (although ones from motor accidents are paid for by something called the TAC). Most private health cover will cover amulance or you can buy ambulance cover separately.

Hope this helps.
Al :)

Michele

Nov 22 2007, 05:00 AM

Thanks Al, that's the best summary I've read! :thumbsup:

I didn't know about the tax rebate - good to know!

gail.crease

Nov 22 2007, 04:42 AM

Very informative post.

What's the deal if you have a pre-existing condition?  Both my kids have pre-existing conditions and have been referred to consultants in Melbourne by their UKconsultants.  One was covered by NHS here and the other we had to get done privately so we got the best surgeon.  In both cases we paid nothing in the UK.  They don't need further operations but will need long term monitoring by specialists.  Will we get it on medicare?

Gail

gail.crease

Nov 23 2007, 01:20 AM

2 months will be fine as they only need to see consultants every 6 months for checkups. They've just had their last appointments here.

gail.crease

Nov 22 2007, 04:42 AM

Very informative post.

What's the deal if you have a pre-existing condition? Both my kids have pre-existing conditions and have been referred to consultants in Melbourne by their UKconsultants. One was covered by NHS here and the other we had to get done privately so we got the best surgeon. In both cases we paid nothing in the UK. They don't need further operations but will need long term monitoring by specialists. Will we get it on medicare?

Gail