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0 pointsphilliphaydon8y ago0 comments

I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but about 8 years ago I got gastro and thought I was dying because I was in so much pain. I was a Kiwi living in Australia l, called myself an ambulance and I don’t have Medicare so figured I had to pay the bill.

After being discharged I gave them my passport and the hospital bill was $0 while the ambulance bill was around $950 Aud.

When I moved to singapore to live I got appendicitis. I called a taxi and paid $9 to go to the hospital. Too scared to get ambulance now even if it’s covered by insurance.

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djsumdog8y ago

So Aussies and Kiwis can live/work in the other country without visas (instant residence) but whoever drafted that agreement really fucked up. Aussies get instant ACC in NZ but Kiwis don't get Medicare in Australia. I remember there were discussions about it on Radio NZ a few years back.

There is a big private health care industry in Australia (for better or worse) that's not employer based (you see adverts on TV), so I'm guessing a lot of Kiwis just get private care in the AU.

But I'm wondering how much it costs an actual Australian resident/citizen with medicare. I know as a non-resident, a doctor cost around $70 ~ $80 (went once in Melbourne and once in Sydney) and I saw a real doctor. That's a far cry from America where you pay $200+ to see a Nurse Practitioner (yes, pretty advanced, but still not an MD).

philliphaydonOP8y ago

Oh I could get Medicare, but because I was never in the country for 6 consecutive months at a time over the 5 years I lived there (traveling for short holidays) they wouldn't grant for me.

Doctor + Prescription in Australia is expensive! Would cost me like ~200 give or take.

In Singapore, consultation is like $15 and the medicine is prescribed by the clinic so no need to go to a pharmacy, total is like $50.

So I don't even bother seeing my insurance doctor where it costs me like ~$5 total, I just go see my normal doctor cos I trust him. (been to same doctor for 6 years)

SyneRyder8y ago

> I'm wondering how much it costs an actual Australian resident/citizen with medicare.

Here's the costs for St John's Ambulance. It's $949 for a life-threatening or urgent call, $510 for non urgent. It mentions that Medicare doesn't cover the cost, and that the costs will always be incurred by the patient. (I actually thought it was covered by my private health insurance, but apparently not.)

http://www.stjohnambulance.com.au/ambulance-and-health-servi...

Some doctors in Australia bulk-bill, so it's free for me to go to see a doctor whenever I want. Though for a short period when the government changed the billing rules, he started charging $25 per visit, but he's gone back to bulk-billing again.

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