Expats in Australia Tally Up High Medical Bills

| December 8, 2012

While many people are struggling to find the money to cover the cost of their medical insurance and are trying to compare health insurance policies, it appears that the government is spending millions on providing medical care for non-residents. Now more than ever it is important to compare prices on private health insurance policies, we learned off of Help Me Choose, since households have been given some added expenses this year, as the government tries to keep the healthcare system sustainable by enforcing means testing and now in their announcement that insurance premiums will now be set to the rate of inflation. By its own admission it is no longer affordable to be offering the rebate of 30% to everyone in the country but other news has found that money which could be spent on looking after locals has to be spent on caring for foreigners.

Visitors to Australia are tallying up high medical bills and the total bill is now sitting in tens of millions for unpaid medical expenses and treatments. Victoria’s last financial year saw $11.6-million racked up in medical bills for foreigners, which equals a third of the costs of caring for patients enrolled in Medicare. Of the $40-million that was accumulated by medical treatment for foreigners in New South Wales, the state has only managed to retrieve $25-million and has to suffer the $15-million shortfall.

In Western Australia the biggest problem is the cost of administering antiretroviral drugs for its HIV positive patients and Queensland faces a bill of $1-million to treat the vast number of non-residents who have tuberculosis. Incidentally, the cost of transporting sick people in all states back to their home countries is also covered by the taxpayer.

The statistics have called individual states to mandate to visitors to have the necessary cover so that the cost can be split with their insurance companies and lessen the burden on the government’s purse strings. It has also been suggested that people are screened for outstanding medical and hospital bills when they want to return and not be allowed to if there is money owed. This is not necessarily going to work in every case however, because even though a visitor may have insurance, it does not necessarily mean the insurance is guaranteed to cover the full expense of every conceivable problem.

In one cited example a woman who had an eating disorder has been reported to cost the state in excess of $200,000 after her insurance company would not cover her treatment because it was considered a pre-existing condition. The news has heated up opinions as health ministers get together to decide how they are going to cope with the influx of medical bills from the asylum seekers and refugees the government has agreed to accept, which will pose yet another problem to the imbalanced distribution of taxpayer money to looking after other people.

Of concern is the fact that most foreign arrivals are not up to date with their vaccines and need to be immunized on landing. Foreigners generally do not have very good medical histories and many of them arrive with chronic disease. It is estimated that 30% of foreign arrivals are anaemic, 21% have Hepatitis B and a large percentage are screening positive for tuberculosis as well, adding to the state’s financial burdens and responsibilities.

The influx of foreigners is also putting strain on areas where there are shortages of medical staff and not enough doctors, treatment facilities and medicines to cater to the large numbers of unhealthy people. One area that still needs to be looked at, and which probably holds the key to unlocking a solution to both locals and non-residents, is lowering the cost of healthcare to make it more affordable for all people. Cheaper healthcare means better preventive care, less disease and a more productive workforce that can contribute to the economy.

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Category: Medical Insurance

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