Bitmonk

21 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Any private insurer will cover your haemophilia.  Health insurers in Australia are not allowed to exclude anything, (unless the insured person chooses not to be covered for something).  

However, all health insurers will have a probationary period, when you first join.  Typically they won't cover ANY pre-existing conditions for the first six months, but after that you are covered.  

If you are currently living in a country which has a reciprocal agreement with Australia (e.g. the UK), then you will be able to access Medicare for essential treatment from the day you arrive.

Hi Marisawright,

Thank you so much for replying, your advice gives me a new direction of search.

I looked into Bupa policies, seems temporary visa holders can purchase Essential Visitors Cover:

https://www.tga.gov.au/prescription-medicines-and-biologicals-tga-annual-summary-2017

The policy says

"overed up to 100% of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fee"

but for selected pharmacy items, it says:

"up to a maximum of $300 per person per calendar year."

For haemophilia, the major cost was the medicine we have to inject every few days. I'm not sure does it counts as a MBS fee or Selected Pharmacy item. From the haemophilia treatment guidance I can see the medicine was provided by National Blood Authority (NBA)

https://www.blood.gov.au/haemophilia-guidelines

Do you know more details of that?

Thanks!

Wei

On 14/12/2015 at 08:47, Guest bll2109 said:

Hi Paige

 

No - it didn't affect me at all. My 457 was granted without issue back in 2011 and I went on to spend 2 wonderful years in Sydney.

 

I did unfortunately get referred for a medical examination during the application process and I believe this was due to the answers I provided re blood disorder. However at the medical in Hampshire they were more interested in the chest x ray and doing the TB check. My haemophilia came up briefly during the medical but because I do not require treatment unless undergoing surgery or have an accident, it didn't seem to cause any red flags.

 

The reality of health care once I was in Australia was much easier than I expected. I am British, so our reciprocal health care with Australia provisioned me with essential health care while in Australia which included my Haemophilia. I also ended up getting private medical insurance to get a tax incentive, so naturally that included the haem cover. The australian balance between public and private healthcare is great.

 

I then went on to live in the USA for 2 years - now that is a different situation. Didn't affect visas because they have no gov healthcare so you won't be a burden, but the cost to me as an individual was very high.

 

Good luck on your move to straya!

Hi Ben,

You mentioned that you found a private insurance that covers haemophilia, Do you still remember the name of the cover?

I'm haemophilia A moving to Australia with temporary working visa, so I'm facing the same problem you are having. If I can find a private insurance that covers haemophilia A, it will solve most of the problem.

Thanks!

Will