Ambulance Cover - An important reminder for newbies

[suziewozie]

Just wanted to give a reminder to all PIA members, especially newly arrived ones. Its a very good idea to get private ambo cover, you never know when you will need one, like we did yesterday.

My son had a accident at school yesterday and they had to call out an ambulance to take him to hospital, infact they had 2 ambos there because they needed a spinal board and not all ambos carry them. Not sure if we will get a bill for 1 or 2 but at $850 a time its definately worth having. Thankfully this comes under the schools insurance and we do have cover but otherwise it would have been a very costly afternoon.

[RockDr]

Thanks for the reminder, need to check with OH that he renewed ours.

Also worth noting that the cover most Private Health Insurers provide doesn't cover all ambulance trips, only that first emergency trip to the closest hospital. Whether further ambulance transfers to a hospital with better/other facilities needed for treatment is covered becomes a very grey area dependent on the definition of "emergency".

If you register direct with the SA ambulance service http://www.saambulance.com.au/ , this loophole is closed.

[HEAPS GOOD !!!]

I hope your boy is on the mend pretty soon...

I remember i had an ambo called for me when i was at work with some chest pains they took me to the hospital thankfully work covered the bill but we have ambo cover anyhow....

Good post to remind people tho...


HG

[Adelaide_bound]

Question about this - does it matter who you get ambulance cover with? We will be campervanning around Australia for our first 6/12 months - if we have an 'offical' address, at the moment it is likely to be in Perth WA (as we have just found out that hubby's father's partner's son lives there), alternatively it will be basically a PO (again, probably in WA due to car registrations for the camper we are looking to buy).

Do we need to get WA ambulance cover (which I understand covers us in each state), or can we go for any state, or seeing as we are SS (and will settle in SA when we get back from travelling) should we get SA ambulance cover? They vary quite a bit in price (ie Victoria is only $75 for the year whereas SA is $138) so obviously the cheapest would be great for us, but equally don't want to do the wrong thing and then get a bill for the ambulance should we ever need one (when hubby rolls the camper for eg lol).

Cheers if anyone has any knowledge of this - we seem to be blazing a trail with this whole 'being backpackers but actually having PR, but not actually 'living' anywhere in the country yet' thing. Different from Grey Nomads, different from usual backpackers, just problematic really!

[andy and lindsey]

I would check with the school - you may find that they will have ambulance cover which covers the students when they are there. I know this happened to a friend of mine who didnt have cover and the school picked up the bill

Lindsey

[RockDr]

You do need an address for the card to be sent to. If you have one in WA for the first year, then maybe sign up there, and then transfer it to SA once you're settled. The ambo service covers you australia wide. In some states it's included in one of the utility bills, rather than having to sign up separately.

[ebstar]

Hi hope your son is ok and on the mend.I too had a call from school yesterday for my daughter with a posssible broken arm.We have only been in our new home a couple of weeks and i was sat filling in the GP registration forms when i got the call.Definately sorting ambo cover before the weeks out. Does anyone have any suggestions of who best to use for private health cover?Nothing to expensive just a basic general cover.
Thanks