Relocating to Australia whilst pregnant

[halfwayaround]

Hello. We are relocating to Australia in a few months time - I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant with a high risk pregnancy, I have a stitch in my cervix which needs to be taken out at 37 weeks to allow me to labour/give birth and we have been offered 4 additional scans including 3 growth scans in my third trimester under the NHS (due to a previous late loss).

My question is: will I still be able to receive this level of care in Australia under medicare? Will they remove the stitch in my cervix or will I have to pay for it? Will I be consultant led like I am now? If I take out private health insurance will I be able to claim on maternity services right away?

I don't know if it makes a difference but I am an Australian citizen although haven't lived there for over 10 years. When I was living there though I obviously had medicare and was also paying for private health insurance.

Halfway around, I can't answer most of your questions, but when we were there again recently, we applied and got a Medicare card which covered some of our appointment costs but still out of pocket. Probably best to call insurance direct re maternity cover. Probably related to if you have cover now or are just going with nhs

There is a year before you can claim on private health for pregnancy. I am pretty sure that wait time is with every private health insurer. I don't think you can arrive, take out insurance and use it for this pregnancy.

As a citizen you will be eligible for medicare immediately. If you are triaged as high risk, you will get high risk care. With a stitch it's hard to believe you wouldn't be considered high risk.

Thanks so much both for your replies!

I have all my notes from my consultants here at the NHS so hopefully armed with all the information I'll be able to access the same level of care in Aus.

It's been a few years since I was in your situation but I went public and was told if I went private I'd have to do my scans and delivery in the public hospital as ours had the state's advanced prenatal care unit.
See which hospital in your state has this center and give them a ring.
I didn't have the same consultant at my appointments. I basically only had more scans and an extra check up. The centre did some tests and scans. There was usually a long wait at the general appointments. Sometimes they ran an hour late.

As a citizen, as soon as you're back residing in the country you are eligible to be covered by Medicare. When you've registered with Medicare, go to a GP and given your high risk get referred to the teaching maternity hospital in your city (Royal Women's in Melbourne, King Edward in Perth, not sure about other cities).

I went through the private system, but I think going public you actually get more covered.

Sometimes they ran an hour late. To be fair, I also had this going private.