Warning - Australia Medicare, not honest

malc_b

This is a warning for anyone planning a trip, or gap year, to Australia.

If you do your research you might think that you do not need health insurance cover while in country. After all the Australian Medicare web site at:

http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/migrants/visitors/uk.jsp

says that uk visitors are covered for any medically necessary treatment, to quote the page:

"Reciprocal health care agreements cover treatment that is medically
necessary. Medically necessary treatment means any ill-health or
injury which occurs while you are in Australia and requires treatment
before you return home."

Sounds like exactly what you get in travel insurance T&Cs. Further down the page it list what is not covered, usual as with NHS, dental, private treatment and treatment arranged before your visit. Sounds just like NHS / travel insurance doesn't it (except for dental). So on a gap year save some money and just insure the travelling days?

STOP

What Medicare fails to mention is that in Australia ambulances are chargeable (and why does it do that given this page is aimed at UK citizens). That's right it is like the NHS but ONLY if you have your accident outside a hospital. Have it anywhere else and you'll be sent a large bill for the trip to the hospital.

In my opinion this is a pretty shoddy deal for UK. We give Australians working, students, or on a gap year in UK NHS complete cover with ambulance or even air ambulance, where as UK citizens have to pay the ambulance bill so in practice still have to take out insurance. There is no difference in cost to visiting Thailand or Australia, insurance is just the same, so how do UK citizens benefit from this deal?

And worse, Medicare aren't even upfront about the difference so you end up making the wrong call. What looks like a way to save money ends up costing lots, and all because Medicare are honest about what you don't get that UK citizens would expect.

alanrowell

In Oz you get the same rights as a citizen of Oz. What's the problem? And medical insurance covers more than in country treatment, it also covers being returned to the UK as a passenger or cargo.

But why not DO YOUR RESEARCH

roadatlas

Medicare in Australia has never provided an Ambulance service. This is probably due to the Ambulance Service being set set long before Medicare was introduced in Australia. Our annual subscription to the Ambulance service is currently at $150 per annum.

Pensioners with a Health Care Card are covered for ambulance under the Medicare scheme.

So really you are getting exactly the same as all Australians... I wouldn't describe them as not honest.

moonrakerz

alanrowell wrote: »

In Oz you get the same rights as a citizen of Oz. What's the problem? And medical insurance covers more than in country treatment, it also covers being returned to the UK as a passenger or cargo.

But why not DO YOUR RESEARCH

Oh come on ! Don't let the facts get in the way of a good ill-informed whinge ...................

malc_b

So if the ambulance service is not part of medicare why not say so?

This is a page aimed at visitors from the UK. It should tell them the facts and all the facts. It should not be a "oh I thought everyone in the UK knew that Australia ambulances were private", "How dumb not to know that".

Having found an authoritative government page on the reciprocal agreement why would anyone think that it might not be the whole truth and that further research was needed (unless they also found a warning post like mine).

Thanks for the link though. I hadn't come across that. It's good to see that our NHS gives full facts. But if you specifically search for Australia medicare info you first get directed to the medicare site which anyone would assume would give all the facts and include info that a UK visitor might assume wrongly.

As for the argument that getting the same as Oz citizen is fair, well you could apply that to USA. When I visit USA I get exactly the same benefits as a USA citizen - nothing. So UK could have a similar reciprocal agreement with USA. They get same benefits as us, we get same benefits as them. Of course that is everything/nothing but its the same principle as Full/Partial that applies in the Oz case.

You're correct that health cover would also include shipping you back. In case of death the option would be to be cremated in Oz, similar expense to UK I'd assume. For long term illness then I expect they ship you back as it would be cheaper than keeping you.

The target of my warning is primarily those going on a gap year. I'd imagine anyone going on holiday would take out cover just for the cancellation insurance. But on a gap year, people don't have a lot of money and the costs rise as it is a long time. With the Medicare website saying the cover is same as our NHS then the temptation is to skip insurance as it seems you're paying for cover you already have.

roadatlas

Hope this helps explain what Medicare covers. It's specifically mentions Ambulance service.

http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/healthinsurance/whatiscovered/medicare.htm

bridiej

Personally I would never travel to any country without travel insurance.

I'm a British citizen but I still got insurance for my recent trip back to the UK, and it was cheap as chips.

No, ambulance isn't included, costs us $95 a year for family ambulance cover.

jammin_2

malc_b wrote: »

We give Australians working, students, or on a gap year in UK NHS complete cover with ambulance or even air ambulance, where as UK citizens have to pay the ambulance bill so in practice still have to take out insurance.

So you're saying that while Australia charges Australian citizens for ambulance services, they should let British citizens have them for free?

malc_b

jammin wrote: »

So you're saying that while Australia charges Australian citizens for ambulance services, they should let British citizens have them for free?

I'm pointing out that a reciprocal agreement where one side gets more benefits than the other is not that fair.

One alternative would be for UK gov to charge Australians for uk ambulances and then use that money to pay the bills of uk citizens who need ambulances in Australia. That would provided a balanced situation. The current situation is

Medical care + ambulance vs Medical care

Which is clearly unbalanced.

Quite why Australia charges for ambulances is a mystery to me. I'm sure that per head that what you pay for medicare is far more than $95 annual ambulance insurance so why not lump it all in together. It seems a odd way to do it. Even with no gov ambulance service there is nothing to stop your gov awarding an annual contract for ambulance service to a private company. That type of thing happens over here all the time.

jammin_2

malc_b wrote: »

I'm pointing out that a reciprocal agreement where one side gets more benefits than the other is not that fair.

The reciprocal agreement is that Australian citizens receive the same treatment as British citizens while in the UK, and British citizens receive the same treatment as Australian citizens while in Australia. It's perfectly fair.

malc_b

bridiej wrote: »

I'm a British citizen but I still got insurance for my recent trip back to the UK, and it was cheap as chips.

Well it would be wouldn't it. You have total cover under the NHS. The insurance probably excludes private health care so all it covers would be dental.

Going the other way, insurances usually lump Australia with Thailand etc. so the cost is not as cheap. And also your trip was less than a gap year which as I said was the focus of my warning.

This is after all a forum for money saving. Insurance for a gap year is not a small sum and anyone reading the medicare page for uk visitors could well assume they had full NHS style cover and could therefore save some significant money. My warning was for them.