alimay68

Great idea!

Hi there I had a congenital dislocated hip and had surgery twice as a child. When I applied to migrate on a spouse visa in 1997, I had to undergo a special examination by an independent orthopaedic surgeon to assess my burden on Medicare I suppose. No problems there, but we eventually took out private health insurance, which is more accessible to your average families/individuals in Australia. Besides (and I think it's still correct), you have a 1% levy on your tax if you don't have health insurance. We were with the NIB and they were brilliant. I had a total hip replacement 2.5 years ago and the only requirement was that we had the top level cover for 12 months prior to the surgery. I 'interviewed' three surgeons and chose the one I felt most comfortable with. He did a fantastic job and I was in a private hospital in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, room to myself, great staff and aftercare. We had about $5k out of pocket expenses, but it was well worth it, even if I did grumble about the anaesthetist's fees at the time!!!! We all also got two free dental check ups/scale and polish each year (had to go into the city for this). Can recommend thoroughly recommend NIB. Having said that, Medicare is a great system too - I had both my kids through Medicare and they were terrific. A friend of mine's daughter had leukaemia in Prep and they'd only been in Australia for a few years. The Royal Children's in Melbourne was, and still is, marvellous to both Mum and daughter. Same friend has secondary breast cancer - the treatment is exemplary. Her folks also emigrated almost 2 years ago and Dad has had treatment on Medicare for a pre-existing complaint. I'm just going from experience here - you might find a few more answers on the Medicare website and others might have their own experiences to share with you too. Good luck!!!

In my experience, I reckon Aussie kids are less petty/cruel ... depends where you live I guess.

We lived in Melbourne up until May 2010 and paid $800-900 a year, compared to the rip-off GBP 1800 a year that we have to pay here, in a town with rubbish roads and pavements, no train station, no cinema and an ailing town centre!!!! We like our house and garden though!

I selected '8' too. According to this table, there are only 3 'bank' holidays ... I thought all Brits called a 'public' holiday a 'bank' holiday ???

Fourcorners - you need a medal for having lived between Buxton and Leek! That stretch between the Roaches and Buxton must be one of the bleakest places in Britain, most of the time. Lol!!!!!! We can see the Roaches from our back garden - on a clear day at least!

Stovies - I can so relate to your comments and can totally understand why you're going back, having resolved your 'issues' with 'unfinished business' in Scotland, not to mention the smoking, litter, manners etc, then how you've changed as a person through over a decade in Oz and feeling the need to say it how it is, the Aussie way! I feel exactly like that! I also know that my daughter would be ecstatic if we announced we were going back, although both of our kids have blossomed since being here, but still hate the smoking aspect! It was so nice to be out walking in Cheshire a few days ago in National Trust woodland ... there were lots of families and dog walkers and it suddenly hit me after 3.5 hours of meandering that we hadn't met a single smoker or narrowly missed stepping in dog poo! Good luck with your new life. We brought more or less everything over from Oz with us and have utilised it all. So glad we brought our big Aussie fridge with us too, as the UK ones are no comparison! Cost us $6,5k for shipping and $4k or so for flights all up - it was cheaper than coming over to England for a 6 week holiday, like we somehow managed to do every 2 years. Keep us posted on your progress!

I got 16 = 67%, so I still failed and most of my answers were educated guesses. Oops. Hope my hubby has better luck in April/May when he has to take the test for real.:arghh:

The streets around Britain disgust me ... piles of fag ends outside pubs and offices, dog poo, trodden-in chewing gum ... not to mention wrappers, beer cans, fast food containers thrown down at random .... It breaks my heart when you see these items strewn on the nature strips as you depart any town or village. I certainly didn't feel the same amount of disgust walking around the Melbourne suburb where we used to live. My kids would not dream of tossing away litter and, certainly at school in Australia, the 'Environment Committee', which my son was involved in, would do the post lunch-time litter collection from around the playground. What better way to promote awareness for a clean environment and not issue 'litter picking' as a punishment (which seems to be the go, certainly at the local high school here in England).

Hi Longbean I've privated messaged you with Poppyred's details. Cheers

I knew of 3 other families who left Melbourne before us in May 2010, another one I met on this forum from Sydney and of another family in Melbourne who are returning this year. In fact, it cost us less to migrate back to the UK than it did to come on holiday for 6 weeks!

Stephensteve, my hubby was a Financial Planner in Melbourne for almost 10 years and has set up his own IFA here in England since our move almost 2 years ago. I'll private message you his contact details for some advice on superannuation. Cheers Lesley

Returned to Staffordshire almost 2 years ago for family connections, but would prefer to be somewhere south of Birmingham .... Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, South Shropshire ....

Well done you, though alongside the litter, smoking and swearing, you forgot to mention the dog poo on the streets!!!