Cost of Birth Delivery in Public Hospital on 457

[Kai]

Hi Resourceful members,

 

We had been recently been granted visa 457 and we will be heading to Adelaide sometime end April. Whilst it was fortunate that we discovered that we are expecting our #2 sometime in October, our recently purchased private insurance healthcare would not cover the medical bills due to the 12 month window period. Through the resourceful threads, we noted that the public hospitals in Adelaide are pretty good, similar with the ones we have back home in Singapore. However, we are curious of the costs to deliver in these public hospitals. Went through natural for #1 and expecting for the same this time round.

 

At the same time, would there be any recommended doctors and/ or public hospitals you could share?

 

Appreciate if you could share your experiences. Thx in advance!

[Blossom]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Well, first off, check if Singapore has a reciprocal arrangement with Medicare, and if they do, what it's for. Some countries are covered for nothing, some only for hospital care, and some, pretty much everything.

 

Once you've checked that, I'll come back and report on my four month old daughters birth in the public system (it's 5am here now lol).

[Juliahemingway]

Hi, I had my baby at flinders medical centre while on our 457 visa and it cost us nothing. The hospital and all but of of the neonatal nurses were fantastic and I would highly recommend it. We are from the UK though and have reciprocal agreement for Medicare.

[Blossom]

On googling it doesn't seem that Singapore has a reciprocal health care agreement.

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements/health-care-for-visitors-to-australia

 

In which case you will have to pay for everything privately. I believe you can go through the public system but pay privately. I'm afraid I'm not sure how much that would be. We gave birth at flinders too and it was excellent.

[Kai]

Thx Julia and Blossom. I doubt that there is any reciprocal agreement with my government agency here in Singapore, like what Blossom had correctly pointed out. Well, I guess we are prepared to the worst scenario, to deliver in public hospitals with private fee. Else we could also return to our home country for delivery which may be cumbersome for the traveling arrangements.

 

I read somewhere that I could perhaps sign up for the Medicare once we land our feet in Aus. I am not sure how true it is as the eligibility requirement stated in the website does not seem to concur.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Kai

[Blossom]

No. You can't sign up to Medicare as you are only on a temporary visa from a country without a reciprocal arrangement. At a total guess I'd have thought you should budget about $10k assuming a natural birth, but really you will have to contact the hospitals direct, and it will depend where you are living as to which one.

[Kai]

That doesn't appear to be a good piece of news for us. As I am away in Singapore now and the information required may not be apparent in the hospitals' websites, guess we could only do the groundwork and reassess upon arriving at Adelaide.

 

I was even exploring on home birth sites, not sure anyone had experienced that LOL

[Blossom]

Even with a home birth you will need a midwife, and face the possibility of having to transfer to a hospital if there are any complications, with possibly the cost of a c section, stay in hospital for mum and baby. Not to mention if there are any complications. You'd have to find out if your insurance would cover your baby once they had arrived. Just incase they come early and need a bit of help. That could increase your costs quite quickly.

 

Unless I had buckets, personally I wouldn't come over until baby was here.

[Kai]

Get what you mean, Blossom. Thanks for your advice fingers cross all good