Moving to Oz on temporary visa have health insurance - how do you get a doc?

[hayleyhew]

We are going to Oz in next couple of weeks on a temporary visa initially - we have medical insurance but how do you go on about getting a doctor? Are you able to get a doc who all family can use in case of problems? Also my son has allergies and wanted to get referred to an allergist?

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here

the first few pages outline who is eligible to enrol in medicare. I think you might be able to enrol straight into medicare and use your health insurance for other things.

As bloss said - find your local doc or ask around about a good one and you just phone up and go and register - no medical no hassle.

We just registered each one of us as we became ill etc. I needed a doc immediately ( 20 weeks pregnant) dd1 needed one immediately - ongoing health issues, dh did not register until a year or so after we were here - he did not need to see a doc iyswim.

also have reciprocal agreement with the UK - so if needed urgent medical care - then it is covered.

I would take your passports showing your visas to the local medicare office and ask them if you are eligible to enrol but that link seems to show that you are.

You will get a medicare card that needs to be shown when claiming and when having appts.

Gp will refer to specialists - quite painless procedure getting a doc here compared to the UK.

We just took our passprts to the medicare office and registered there. We needed some extra info such as proof of address and something like birth certificates for the kids. The card came through within 2 weeks.
we haven't registered with a doctor; dh has used a medical centre near his work which ahs bulk billed. Beware though I do know people who have been charged 40 quid for taking a child to a doctor which I don't understand. Make sure you have the ambulance cover etc

if you are in qld and paying electricity - you have ambulance cover opaid via levy. if not - join as it can be expensive!!

our doc bulk bills children during the day but we pay 40 odd dollars and get 32 back from medicare.

DS1 & 2 were born in UK, and as we couldn't prove that we had cut our ties to UK when were in Oz on holiday recently, they weren't on our medicare cards and so we had to pay for them - $80 for a normal GP appt (seen that day), $205 to see a ped, and $137 for an u/s, but all this was done within two weeks of seeing a GP (and the ped and u/s were done on same day).

Recently in the UK it's taken almost two months for an appt to come through for an opthalmologist, and the appt isn't for another two months.

I know it's not perfect in Oz though...