tahm563 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Hello all, For those living in Sydney, what would you say the monthly living cost would be for a family of five EXCLUDING rent? We have 2 teens, one in primary and husband and wife. We cook all our meals from scratch usually, get takeaway once a week. Here in the UK, I have a cleaner every week (£45/week) - would love to have that there too. We don't drink. How much should we budget for to have a comfortable life? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluequay Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) We are working to a budget of roughly $2 to £1 we currently spend in the UK. Based on our last visit a few weeks ago. Food - Similar to UK now (Ocado vs Woolworths\Foodland) Veg etc is much better quality in Australia! $1 Avo's Petrol - Oz cheaper by 25% (On average - prices fluctuate wildly day to day) Utilities - Oz cheaper at the moment by not by much. Broadband\Mobile - Similiar Insurance - Much more expensive in Oz Alchohol - Oz more expensive out. From bottle-o Wine cheaper than UK\Beer more expensive Cars - Basic cars cheaper Australia, Luxury more expensive. 2nd hand cars much more expensive than UK as they hold their value better Council Tax - In SA much cheaper than UK You will need to budget for school fees even in a state school. Around $1000 for secondary, $500 for primary. Things like uniforms are a lot more expensive. Edited January 23 by bluequay 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 How much do you need in the UK? Probably take that figure and add about 25%. From my research houses and cars are more expensive. Fuel is cheaper, but you’ll likely cover longer distances in the car. You need some sort of health insurance/ambulance cover and you will likely have to pay for dental treatment. School fees/levies and contributions exist and uniforms/materials are pricey, with 3 kids that’s going to add up. Have a look into schools in the area you are looking to move to. Kids activities look about the same price or a bit cheaper and there are more ‘free’ or cheap things to do when weather is good. Food is about the same as UK, more seasonal and maybe a bit pricier. Utilities are cheaper (for us but we are in Scotland and pay £££ for gas for heating). All told I don’t think there’s going to be that much in it, I am expecting Aus to be about 20-25% more expensive and hoping that the better salary will help absorb some of that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) 6 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said: You need some sort of health insurance/ambulance cover and you will likely have to pay for dental treatment. .... Just to clarify that: if you are British and you are happy with the standard of treatment you get from the NHS, you don't need health insurance. You can choose to have it, but more than half the Australian population doesn't have any. Of those that do have insurance, many have it just to avoid the Medicare surcharge, or because they want to avoid the Lifetime Health Cover Loading in later life (see link below) -- not because they think it's worth having. The links below are from Choice, which is the Australian equivalent of Which? magazine: https://www.doineedhealthinsurance.com.au/ https://www.choice.com.au/money/insurance/health/articles/do-you-need-private-health-insurance If you're a new migrant arriving in Australia, you're not subject to the Lifetime Loading penalty if you take out health insurance (more correctly called "Hospital Cover') within a year of your arrival. I'd advise taking that time to decide whether you want it or not. Just take out "Extras" cover in the meantime, so you're covered for all the things Medicare doesn't cover at all, i.e. optical, dental, physiotherapy, chiropody. Emergency ambulance cover is often included in Extras cover but if not, there are separate policies available. The company will try to talk you into taking a Combined policy instead, but there is absolutely no reason why you can't have an Extras policy on its own. Health insurance covers you for treatment in hospital only. Nothing else. In Australia, visits to a GP aren't always free, there's a 'gap' payment, but health insurance does NOT cover that. Ditto prescriptions. If you don't have health insurance, you'll get treated in hospital free of charge, just like the NHS (and just like the NHS, there are crowded wards and long waiting lists for elective surgery). Health insurance lets you skip the waiting lists by seeing a private specialist -- however, it only covers the treatment they give you within the hospital, and even then, there will be a substantial "gap" to pay. It doesn't cover visits to the specialist in their consulting room before and after your treatment, or ongoing checkups with them, or any scans or pathology ordered by them outside the hospital. That's why you get strange situations like my two friends, who had their babies around the same time: both went to the same hospital in Ballarat, but one went public and the other went private. For the one who went public, having her baby cost nothing. The one who went private ended up with about $10,000 in 'gap' fees to pay. Of course, she had the benefit of a private room and her choice of doctor, so I'd say it was less stressful and she may have been happy to pay for that. It's all about choice and what you can afford, really. Edited January 24 by Marisawright 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 22 minutes ago, Marisawright said: Just take out "Extras" cover in the meantime, so you're covered for all the things Medicare doesn't cover at all, i.e. optical, dental, physiotherapy, chiropody. Emergency ambulance cover is often included in Extras cover but if not, there are separate policies available So, we agree, you need some kind of health insurance! Extras cover, is insurance cover that you pay for. It’s not something you have to pay for in the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 17 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said: So, we agree, you need some kind of health insurance! Extras cover, is insurance cover that you pay for. That's true, but when you get here, you'll discover that most Aussies say "health insurance" when they mean the main policy. Also if you ring up a company and ask for a quote for "health insurance", they'll quote you for the main policy OR a combined policy. It won't occur to them to offer Extras on its own because only about 10% of Aussies have Extras insurance on its own. So it's important to make that distinction, otherwise you'll be in for a lot of confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 7 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said: How much do you need in the UK? Probably take that figure and add about 25%. From my research houses and cars are more expensive. Fuel is cheaper, but you’ll likely cover longer distances in the car. You need some sort of health insurance/ambulance cover and you will likely have to pay for dental treatment. School fees/levies and contributions exist and uniforms/materials are pricey, with 3 kids that’s going to add up. Have a look into schools in the area you are looking to move to. Kids activities look about the same price or a bit cheaper and there are more ‘free’ or cheap things to do when weather is good. Food is about the same as UK, more seasonal and maybe a bit pricier. Utilities are cheaper (for us but we are in Scotland and pay £££ for gas for heating). All told I don’t think there’s going to be that much in it, I am expecting Aus to be about 20-25% more expensive and hoping that the better salary will help absorb some of that. I still don’t get that houses are more expensive here? It surely depends where you move from in UK to Australia. London Sydney are both expensive. My UK son’s house good suburb Bristol. 3 bed 60’s semi detached, 2 bathrooms, loft extension, staircase made small bedroom too small for bed, ok for cot. Small kitchen dining room extension. Garage too small for modern car, front garden concreted over to park the cars, small back garden. Worth 750,000 UK pds. = $1,450,563, 50 at present rate. My Australian son’s house, good suburb north Brisbane. 4 bedroom 2 bathrooms detached house, fully renovated, large kitchen/ living/dining area, extra study area, and large rumpus room, large block and large outdoor sitting covered area. Worth $900,000 = 465,235,06 UK pds. Both educated to masters degrees, well qualified good jobs , Australian son earns more than UK son Just thought this might be of interest to people comparing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerVoice Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 I'd agree with most points made in the above posts on living costs. I live in regional Queensland and the last I was in the UK was five years ago, so that's my reference point. I know most things over there have gone up considerably in that time, particularly energy costs, although there have been significant increases in the cost of living in here too. Overall, I'd say groceries are more expensive over. If you shop exclusively at Aldi you can save quite a lot, but then you're likely to get bored with the lack of choice pretty quickly. And not everywhere in Australia has Aldi either, so it depends on where you live. If you shop mainly at Coles/Woollies you're going to notice a big difference in your average weekly shop if you're used to Sainsbury and Tesco prices. If you're more of an Ocado/Waitrose person you're not going to notice quite so much difference in price, but then don't expect anything as fancy. Nearly all our fruit and vegetables are grown in Australia, so they're subject to significant seasonal fluctuations in price. Avocados were a dollar here a few weeks ago, but now they're $2 each. In winter they can be $3-4. You can save a lot of money by just not buying stuff when it's out of season. In terms of utilities most people only have water and electricity, but many here have solar and that can reduce your costs considerably. We haven't had an electricity bill since we put our system on, so if you know you're going to be in your property at least 5 years it's well the worth the investment. There are no mandatory school fees here in state schools, unless your family are on temporary visas. Most schools here in Queensland have a Student Resources Scheme, which costs around $300 per student per year. Parents can opt out of it if they want to buy their children's own resources but none ever do because it would work out much more expensive than the school scheme, which is subsidised by the government. I'm not sure about Sydney, but I'd assume that state schools in NSW do something similar. A cleaner will cost around $40/hour. Most will expect to do a minimum of two hours cleaning per visit, and some will require you to provide your own cleaning products. This information is via my wife, who has a couple of friends who are currently working as freelance cleaners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 20 minutes ago, ramot said: I still don’t get that houses are more expensive here? It surely depends where you move from in UK to Australia. London Sydney are both expensive. My UK son’s house good suburb Bristol. 3 bed 60’s semi detached, 2 bathrooms, loft extension, staircase made small bedroom too small for bed, ok for cot. Small kitchen dining room extension. Garage too small for modern car, front garden concreted over to park the cars, small back garden. Worth 750,000 UK pds. = $1,450,563, 50 at present rate. My Australian son’s house, good suburb north Brisbane. 4 bedroom 2 bathrooms detached house, fully renovated, large kitchen/ living/dining area, extra study area, and large rumpus room, large block and large outdoor sitting covered area. Worth $900,000 = 465,235,06 UK pds. Both educated to masters degrees, well qualified good jobs , Australian son earns more than UK son Just thought this might be of interest to people comparing. Plus 2 car garage with Australian house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerVoice Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 22 minutes ago, ramot said: I still don’t get that houses are more expensive here? It surely depends where you move from in UK to Australia. London Sydney are both expensive. My UK son’s house good suburb Bristol. 3 bed 60’s semi detached, 2 bathrooms, loft extension, staircase made small bedroom too small for bed, ok for cot. Small kitchen dining room extension. Garage too small for modern car, front garden concreted over to park the cars, small back garden. Worth 750,000 UK pds. = $1,450,563, 50 at present rate. My Australian son’s house, good suburb north Brisbane. 4 bedroom 2 bathrooms detached house, fully renovated, large kitchen/ living/dining area, extra study area, and large rumpus room, large block and large outdoor sitting covered area. Worth $900,000 = 465,235,06 UK pds. Both educated to masters degrees, well qualified good jobs , Australian son earns more than UK son Just thought this might be of interest to people comparing. Well they certainly are. You need to compare like with like. Your UK son lives in a very expensive house (the average house price in Bristol is about half that) and in an expensive region of the UK, whereas your son's home in Australia is much more in line with national averages. Yes, his house is bigger, but then the average property here is much larger than the average home in the UK. Based on data from the ONS (Sep 2023), the median UK house price was £291,000 equivalent to $562,000. The only place in Australia you can buy a house for that price is Darwin. (I think I'd rather live in the UK!) If you ignore Sydney in the chart below to make it a fairer comparison, the median house price across the other regional capitals is about $750,000. This is almost $200,000 more than the average UK home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerVoice Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 hours ago, Marisawright said: Just take out "Extras" cover in the meantime, so you're covered for all the things Medicare doesn't cover at all, i.e. optical, dental, physiotherapy, chiropody. Emergency ambulance cover is often included in Extras cover but if not, there are separate policies available. 2 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said: So, we agree, you need some kind of health insurance! Extras cover, is insurance cover that you pay for. It’s not something you have to pay for in the UK. No, you don't. It's a choice. I haven't paid a cent for any kind of private health insurance or cover since I arrived here, and I wouldn't bother unless I found myself subject to the Medicare Levy Surcharge. If I moved to a state other than Queensland I would take out ambulance cover, but that's about it. On the few occasions my wife and I have needed to access healthcare through the public system, we've had an excellence experience. As for optical, dental etc, we just pay for them when we need them, and (to date) it has worked out far cheaper. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 31 minutes ago, InnerVoice said: I haven't paid a cent for any kind of private health insurance or cover since I arrived here... As for optical, dental etc, we just pay for them when we need them, and (to date) it has worked out far cheaper. Fair point. I wear glasses (and I'm fussy about my frames), I'm conscientious about having six-monthly dental checkups, and as a serious dancer, I need physiotherapy etc more than the average person. So Extras cover pays off for me. Whereas my oh is neglectful of his teeth and sees all physical therapies as quackery, so he only has to pay for his glasses, and that means Extras cover wouldn't make sense for him (though I do wish he'd look after his teeth!). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Manna Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 The thing I've never really understood about private health insurance is that when you have private health insurance in the UK it pays for everything. You do have to check first, but I've never been recommended for any treatment that wasn't fully covered. When you have private health insurance in Australia, you still seem to pay an awful lot of money for treatment. And I am talking quite significant sums for major surgery. It can be quite staggering. So don't think just because you take private cover you are done and dusted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 12 minutes ago, Blue Manna said: The thing I've never really understood about private health insurance is that when you have private health insurance in the UK it pays for everything. You do have to check first, but I've never been recommended for any treatment that wasn't fully covered. When you have private health insurance in Australia, you still seem to pay an awful lot of money for treatment. And I am talking quite significant sums for major surgery. It can be quite staggering. So don't think just because you take private cover you are done and dusted. You're right. If you're on a long-term visit to Australia from overseas, you can get Overseas Visitors cover which, like the British system, covers everything. However the annual premium is substantially higher, and I'm guessing that's why they don't offer full coverage here -- only the wealthy would be willing to pay the premiums. How do premiums here compare with the UK? You are also right that the 'gap' payments can be very high, depending on what level of cover/excess you choose. I gave one example already. Another example is my own spinal fusion op. The operation cost $35,000 of which private insurance paid only $25,000, leaving me with a $10,000 bill. And that didn't include the fees for specialist appointments before and after, scans etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 51 minutes ago, Blue Manna said: The thing I've never really understood about private health insurance is that when you have private health insurance in the UK it pays for everything. You do have to check first, but I've never been recommended for any treatment that wasn't fully covered. When you have private health insurance in Australia, you still seem to pay an awful lot of money for treatment. And I am talking quite significant sums for major surgery. It can be quite staggering. So don't think just because you take private cover you are done and dusted. Domestic health insurance in Australia is based on community risk - not on an individual's personal risk - and is a completely different product to health insurance offered in other countries. There are no health questionnaires here, no medicals are required and even all pre-existing conditions are covered after the appropriate waiting period has elapsed. It's designed to make insurance available to anyone who wants it - even those who are sick. Totally unlike private health insurance products overseas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 5 hours ago, InnerVoice said: haven't paid a cent for any kind of private health insurance or cover since I arrived here, and I wouldn't bother unless I found myself subject to the Medicare Levy Surcharge That’s because you’re tight! It’s actually a bit different when you have kids as well. There’s other things to consider. OP has 3 children so would need to think about things they might need and weigh up potential costs. A lot of the contributors on here have kids who have long flown the nest! We have private healthcare here in UK so will be pricing and considering it in Aus. As usual a lot of splitting hairs on this forum and bickering which is not helpful to the OP. Main point is, regardless of whether you call it ‘extras’ ‘insurance cover’ ‘ambulance cover’ or just ‘invoices for medical care’, there will certainly be more costs involved in health are in Aus than there are in the UK. Charges for dental care, prescriptions, etc and that is what is relevant to the OP regarding general costs of living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 7 hours ago, ramot said: I still don’t get that houses are more expensive here? It surely depends where you move from in UK to Australia. London Sydney are both expensive. My UK son’s house good suburb Bristol. 3 bed 60’s semi detached, 2 bathrooms, loft extension, staircase made small bedroom too small for bed, ok for cot. Small kitchen dining room extension. Garage too small for modern car, front garden concreted over to park the cars, small back garden. Worth 750,000 UK pds. = $1,450,563, 50 at present rate. My Australian son’s house, good suburb north Brisbane. 4 bedroom 2 bathrooms detached house, fully renovated, large kitchen/ living/dining area, extra study area, and large rumpus room, large block and large outdoor sitting covered area. Worth $900,000 = 465,235,06 UK pds. Both educated to masters degrees, well qualified good jobs , Australian son earns more than UK son Just thought this might be of interest to people comparing. You’re right, we’d need to know where they’re coming from, but we don’t so you need to base it on average of sorts. That said, I think rents in any Aus state capital are comparable with London/South England. Purchase prices vary but are definitely overall higher in Aus on average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 6 hours ago, InnerVoice said: As for optical, dental etc, we just pay for them when we need them, and (to date) it has worked out far cheaper. You have also openly stated on this forum that you access an NHS dentist on trips home in order to avoid paying for treatment in Aus. Come on now IV, behave yourself!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tahm563 Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 (edited) Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. Currently we spend 4,000 pounds/month in London excluding rent/mortgage. We paid up for our house luckily, so have no mortgage. Things have shot up considerably recently and our costs have gone up at least 1K/month in the last year or so (and our lifestyle has not changed at all). The only thing that changed is we now have private health insurance after waiting for months for NHS treatments and never getting it. Our health insurance does not cover dental and optician, but we don't have to pay anything out of pocket for hospital treatment/consultant fees. Even under NHS, we always had to pay for dental costs. It's only free if you are on low income or under 18. And we also pay for glasses and for optician appointments (these things are not covered by NHS anymore unless you are a child/elderly/low income/special health conditions). At least this is the case in London. Last month our utility was £160 despite having solar and batteries as heating is by gas (this is after being stingy with heating and using it as sparingly as we can). Gone are the days when we could keep the heating on all day and it would be £70-80. My four siblings live in Sydney. One with kids same age as mine says he spends 6,000 aud per month including mortgage. This seems to be on the low side comparing to what I am hearing on this forum. He lives a good lifestyle (not lavish, but same as me in London). He doesn't have private health insurance and he said healthcare is fine. He is in a similar career to me and earns 30K more (with similar experience level). My parents don't have health insurance, my mum had a sudden heart issue a few months ago for which she had to be hospitalised for 2 weeks and the care was absolutely topnotch (I went over to for 2 weeks to look after her). Had all her procedures done swiftly, nurses and doctors always had a smile on their faces. Did not pay a penny. Compared to the NHS, service and facilities were AMAZING. Dare I say, it was even better than the private hospital facilities I experienced here when I had a surgery last year. I probably won't go for health insurance there just yet (might reconsider when I am older and really need it). The veg and fruits were so much better there, even the meat and fish seemed more fresh. All these things are making us consider moving back to sydney. Re house, I do feel they are par London, but you get a much bigger living space there. But Sydney is a large place, so prices vary greatly. Where my family lives, there are brand new decent 4 bed houses for sale for circa 1.3 million aud (sydney south west). I know it's not a great place to live in sydney standard, but feels much nicer, safer and cheaper than London. Maybe I am just thinking the grass is greener on the other side. I go home every 2 years but never really felt the pull to move back so strongly until now. With the rising costs, London has very little to offer now. I can't see how my kids will ever afford to buy a place here with the meagre salaries they offer. Edited January 25 by tahm563 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausvisitor Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 I have health insurance, it's a no-brainer. The basic cover I have is $3,956 a year, the MLS (read tax) I'd have to pay if I didn't have private cover is over $5,500 So healthcare is actually cheaper than not having it. Add in we get $400 opticians, $1800 dental and $900 other remedies (between us) if we claim everything the insurance is only $800 and saves $5.5k You'd have to be a fool in my situation not to take it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 13 minutes ago, tahm563 said: Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. Currently we spend 4,000 pounds/month in London excluding rent/mortgage. We paid up for our house luckily, so have no mortgage. Things have shot up considerably recently and our costs have gone up at least 1K/month in the last year or so (and our lifestyle has not changed at all). The only thing that changed is we now have private health insurance after waiting for months for NHS treatments and never getting it. Our health insurance does not cover dental and optician, but we don't have to pay anything out of pocket for hospital treatment/consultant fees. Even under NHS, we always had to pay for dental costs. It's only free if you are on low income or under 18. And we also pay for glasses and for optician appointments (these things are not covered by NHS anymore unless you are a child/elderly/low income/special health conditions). At least this is the case in London. Last month our utility was £160 despite having solar and batteries as heating is by gas (this is after being stingy with heating and using it as sparingly as we can). Gone are the days when we could keep the heating on all day and it would be £70-80. My four siblings live in Sydney. One with kids same age as mine says he spends 6,000 aud per month including mortgage. This seems to be on the low side comparing to what I am hearing on this forum. He lives a good lifestyle (not lavish, but same as me in London). He doesn't have private health insurance and he said healthcare is fine. He is in a similar career to me and earns 30K more (with similar experience level). My parents don't have health insurance, my mum had a sudden heart issue a few months ago for which she had to be hospitalised for 2 weeks and the care was absolutely topnotch (I went over to for 2 weeks to look after her). Had all her procedures done swiftly, nurses and doctors always had a smile on their faces. Did not pay a penny. Compared to the NHS, service and facilities were AMAZING. Dare I say, it was even better than the private hospital facilities I experienced here when I had a surgery last year. I probably won't go for health insurance there just yet (might reconsider when I am older and really need it). The veg and fruits were so much better there, even the meat and fish seemed more fresh. All these things are making us consider moving back to sydney. Re house, I do feel they are par London, but you get a much bigger living space there. But Sydney is a large place, so prices vary greatly. Where my family lives, there are brand new decent 4 bed houses for sale for circa 1.3 million aud (sydney south west). I know it's not a great place to live in sydney standard, but feels much nicer, safer and cheaper than London. Maybe I am just thinking the grass is greener on the other side. I go home every 2 years but never really felt the pull to move back so strongly until now. With the rising costs, London has very little to offer now. I can't see how my kids will ever afford to buy a place here with the meagre salaries they offer. I think $6k is not a lot, even a $500k mortgage is going to cost between $3-4k a month. So unless mortgage is low it doesn’t leave much for living. If you’ve paid the London mortgage off you should be quids in for buying something in Aus, at least you’ll have a big deposit if not enough to buy outright. From what you’re saying it’s a no-brainer to move. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausvisitor Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 5 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said: I think $6k is not a lot, even a $500k mortgage is going to cost between $3-4k a month. So unless mortgage is low it doesn’t leave much for living. If you’ve paid the London mortgage off you should be quids in for buying something in Aus, at least you’ll have a big deposit if not enough to buy outright. From what you’re saying it’s a no-brainer to move. If they've paid off the London mortgage unless they lived in a hovel (and then even then hovels aren't cheap in town) then they will have their pick of pretty much anywhere in Sydney (that normal people live not Hollywood superstars and nepo-babies) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 17 minutes ago, tahm563 said: My four siblings live in Sydney. One with kids same age as mine... He doesn't have private health insurance and he said healthcare is fine. ... My parents don't have health insurance, my mum had a sudden heart issue a few months ago for which she had to be hospitalised for 2 weeks and the care was absolutely topnotch (I went over to for 2 weeks to look after her). I agree. I've been treated in the public system a few times and if anything, I've felt the quality of care was better than in the private system. If you take private health insurance, it's not because of concerns about treatment, it's more about avoiding the waiting lists. As @Ausvisitor says, private health insurance is a no-brainer if you're earning over $90,000 a year (over $180,000 for a couple), because you'll be slugged a Medicare surcharge if you don't have it. it's all explained in that link I gave. However if you are earning under that figure, it's a different story. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausvisitor Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Marisawright said: I agree. I've been treated in the public system a few times and if anything, I've felt the quality of care was better than in the private system. If you take private health insurance, it's not because of concerns about treatment, it's more about avoiding the waiting lists. As @Ausvisitor says, private health insurance is a no-brainer if you're earning over $90,000 a year (over $180,000 for a couple), because you'll be slugged a Medicare surcharge if you don't have it. it's all explained in that link I gave. However if you are earning under that figure, it's a different story. Very true, when you ask a forum for advice on this sort of thing you also need to ask the people responding how much they earn (which obviously they won't normally say) because that's the single biggest determinant as to whether its worth it or not (Well ok it's not, the biggest determinant is do you need the hospital cover, but you won't know that until way after you've made the decision to take out the cover) One other thing in many states ambulance journeys are not free, the cost of a journey can easily get to $1,000 if you live a distance from the hospital. Stand alone ambulance insurance is around $450 for a family (and covered in most health care policies in the general premium) as a brit I never even considered an ambulance journey when Ill wouldn't be covered just by general taxation... Edited January 25 by Ausvisitor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnerVoice Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 55 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said: You have also openly stated on this forum that you access an NHS dentist on trips home in order to avoid paying for treatment in Aus. Come on now IV, behave yourself!! Well you'd be a mug not to, wouldn't you? And apart from a clean and scale I've never had any other treatment on the NHS in over 20 years. My dentist would say maybe this or that might need doing in a few years, but we'll leave it for now - I don't go drilling holes in people's head for no reason! That isn't the same honesty you'll have over here, I can assure you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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