Another medical insurance question

Old Feb 5th, 2009, 09:30 PM
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Another medical insurance question

We have friends who recently went to Brisbane to attend one of the Andre Rieu concerts. A few hours before the concert he got taken ill and was taken by ambulance to hospital. They are from NZ by the way.

I am not sure whether they had travel insurance or not but last week they received a bill from the ambulance services for $ 900.00. I honestly thought NZ had a reciprocal agreement with Australia especially for emergency care, or does this not cover ambulance trips?

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Old Feb 5th, 2009, 09:52 PM
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Hi nelsonian,

We don't have free ambulance in Queensland. We all pay a levy on our electricity bill to cover the costs involved. I pay $0.28134/day. My last bill included $25.60 for ambulance.

Sorry to say but the bill was the reciprocation. Did you friend have travel insurance?
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Old Feb 6th, 2009, 01:28 AM
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Yep, bit of a gap in the system there for whilst there's the reiprocal medicare arrangement with a number of countries [though strangely I do not remember NZ on that list], as sb indicates, Ambulance is differently administrated state by state and so not part of the Medicare system.
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 04:45 AM
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SB, you pay a levy on your electricity bill? How odd. In SA, electricity is privatised, so I don't know that a scheme like that would work very well. The Ambulance service is funded by the Govt, but also by ambulance insurance (not as popular as general health insurance). If you don't have cover and get carted off in an ambulance you get hit with a bill of at least $500 I believe (may be more by now).

So are Queenslanders fully covered if they use the service, as they've paid a levy?
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 05:42 AM
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Author: speckles
Date: 02/08/2009, 08:45 am
SB, you pay a levy on your electricity bill? How odd. In SA, electricity is privatised, so I don't know that a scheme like that would work very well. The Ambulance service is funded by the Govt, but also by ambulance insurance (not as popular as general health insurance). If you don't have cover and get carted off in an ambulance you get hit with a bill of at least $500 I believe (may be more by now).

So are Queenslanders fully covered if they use the service, as they've paid a levy?
........................
Well not so much odd but just the way the government decided a few years back to have the sunscription collected.
The oddities revealed or those which upset people were when some people with business premises realised they'd be hit twice or more.

Not sure, but I think the government may have done something about that, though at the time we had a robust rotund Premier now in US and his attitude was initially one of tough titties!

The other oddity is I suppose that one might be resident in Queensland and not have an electricity account - not sure on what happens there either.

But yep, if you have an electricity account, pay the levy you and family [again not sure on adult kids never wanting to leave home]are fully covered for ambulance charges and that's all over Australia, the states having recipocral agreements.

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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 01:19 PM
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The other stupid thing in that Queensland system is that if you have private health insurance which includes Ambulance service ( and mine did/does) you pay twice when you pay your electricity bill which contained the levy. I do not remember many people kicking up a stink on that one - but talk about the Government double dipping! If any of you wonder why anyone would pay Private Health Insurance on top of Medicare - try living in Queensland and using the Queensland Health Service or as a friend of mine who has moved into the private sector from there says - its Queensland Sickness Inc. So for any Kiwis coming to Australia and going to Queensland it most certainly pays to have travel insurance and in fact looking at the state of NSW hospitals it would be a good idea to have it if you are going there as well because the locals have enough trouble getting to see a Government doctor so I doubt there is much hope for anyone else.
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 02:56 PM
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Maybe we should just deport all those Kiwis Lizzy!
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 03:29 PM
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Bushranger, I don't think it's the fault of the Kiwis that Queensland Health (read sickness) is in such a dreadful situation. Having worked closely in and with Qld Health I truely believe that those boffins who traded ( and who continue to trade ) the health of the public in Queensland should be tarred and feathered or at the very least brought to face a court which should indict them with a failure of duty of care on a large scale.
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 04:06 PM
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Lizzy! If you tar and feather them, they may then be mistakenly identified as Kiwis, and that's not fair to the rest of us!
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Old Feb 8th, 2009, 04:19 PM
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No KiwiRob - they should look like the extinct Dodo - definately not Kiwis 'cause they are cute!
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