Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA)

Does anyone have any real world experience of how this works? I've read a few websites, and on the face of it, it looks great, and than coming from the UK me and my family should be very well covered (travelling under my 457 visa).

But what I'd like to know is, what are the limitations of it when you come to use it. My wife has a prescription for a drug that is very expensive, and reading the websites it appears that PBS under RHCA should cover us. The difference in price between the PBS cost and the actual cost is huge.

Has anyone on here had positive experience of getting prescriptions under the scheme?

I've had no problems getting prescriptions under the RHCA, had a few of them but my meds have been covered under the PBS so I've paid the subsidised cost the same as Australians. As long as the drug is covered by PBS then I shouldn't have thought you'd have any problems?

Some employers may ask you to take out some private health insurance on a 457 visa

Some employers may ask you to take out some private health insurance on a 457 visa

My employer has made medical insurance a condition of my employement. But I'm expecting the insurance company not to cover this prescription as it is for a known condition at the time of taking out the insurance, so hoping to be able to use PBS to get the medication.

You would need to check whether the drug is on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, if it is not then you have to pay full price for the drug.

My friend uses Byetta a diabetic drug and she had to pay full price for the drug for the last two years which came out at about a hundred and fifty dollars a month. This drug has now been put on to the PBS so now she will just pay around $32.90 a month for the drug.

There are also classes of expensive drugs that are not allowed to be prescribed unless the patient has a health condition that prevents using another drug. My daughter has Keppra this drug is not widely available on the PBS and her doctor has to phone Canberra every time she gets a new prescription to have her prescription authorised.

I have a pension card so have my drugs cheaper but I do take one drug that is not covered and that drug is costing me $42.90 a month.

Its complicated but you can check the PBS list of pharmaceuticals to see if drugs you take are on the list.

http://www.pbs.gov.au/pbs

The drug is on the PBS list, so it is sounding like good news for us.

Thanks for the replies so far.

must check mine, I think that I read somewhere that you may get them cheaper over the counter and that pharmacists will tell you, similar to here, correct me if I'm wrong though please

I don't know if this will help anyone, but I pay upfront for a full 6 months supply at a time for a medication I take regularly, eg. lipitor for cholesterol, and get a discount on the price. Didn't know you could do this until recently.