Emergency health cover - confused

[Isthisnametaken]

Posting on behalf of my wife. She is doing a 10 day hike on the Larapinta and wants to get emergency health cover. From what we have seen, the health cover common at you go with, you have to be picked up by a specific emergency service. So BUPA specify St Johns in the NT but St Johns don't do helicopter in the NT. It seems a bit strange that you dial 000 and depnding on who picks you up will depend if you can be covered for an emergency.

Any hints, tips or pointers on the best way to ensure you are covered for emergency cover would be appreciated.

John

[Eremophila]

Might be worth taking out a travel policy in addition to your BUPA cover?

Or call St Johns in Alice Springs and they might be able to clarify. They are the only ambulance service, so whilst they don't actually have their own helicopter, any rescue would presumably be chartered on their behalf. Or it could be chartered by the NT Govt. I'm not sure how it works.

Is your wife doing the hike with a guided group? If so the company may also be able to answer your questions.

[photohiker]

Emergency airlift in the NT is via the Flying Doctor Service. I'd be surprised if BUPA would not allow for and fund that assistance, ask them.

Also look at the QBE travel insurance policy for comparison to BUPA's policy. QBE would be a well known standard.

[Xplora]

You can get an Ambulance Victoria cover and pay quarterly. It covers you in any state and by any means of emergency transport necessary. Cost is about $10/month. Not sure though if you need to be a Vic resident but other state ambulance providers will have a similar arrangement. Forget the health funds. There is also a problem in some remote areas where the Royal Flying Doctor service will not pick up unless you are indigenous, even for the most severe injuries.

[photohiker]

There is also a problem in some remote areas where the Royal Flying Doctor service will not pick up unless you are indigenous, even for the most severe injuries.

Can you elaborate?

Here is what the RFDS says:

Using the latest in aviation, medical and communications technology, the Royal Flying Doctor Service works to provide emergency medical and primary health care services to anyone who lives, works or travels in rural and remote Australia.

[GPSGuided]

As pointed out above, if the only concern is emergency transport, then just subscribe to the ambulance service. We are so lucky here in Australia that Medicare will look after almost all the rest when it comes to emergency care. The only reason to consider private health insurance is for the usual desires eg. Private hospital, choice of specialists, some prostheses, some cover for auxiliary care etc.


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[neilmny]

You can get an Ambulance Victoria cover and pay quarterly. It covers you in any state and by any means of emergency transport necessary. Cost is about $10/month. Not sure though if you need to be a Vic resident but other state ambulance providers will have a similar arrangement. Forget the health funds. There is also a problem in some remote areas where the Royal Flying Doctor service will not pick up unless you are indigenous, even for the most severe injuries.

Just spoke to Ambulance Vic. as I was interested to understand what is covered outside Vic. myself.
Ambulance is covered but RFDS is not covered.
Also agree forget health funds as there are too many if and buts when it comes to cover.
I also don't know if you have to be a resident of Victoria. Ph. 1300366141 to enquire.

[photohiker]

Now we are getting confused...

Get an ambulance cover, forget health funds. The ambulance cover will get you an ambulance. Great.

Except, if you are in a remote outback area without vehicle access, an ambulance won't help. You need the RFDS.

The RFDS emergency recovery will be at no cost to the patient, but if the patient has health cover the RFDS may recover costs from that insurance co.

By all means, have an ambulance subscription if you don't have health cover. Even metro ambulance trip costs can be daunting.

[GPSGuided]

Bear in mind though that RFDS only have 66 fixed wing aircrafts. For the type of helivac service the OP was thinking about, that's not for RFDS. NT has other helivac solutions - Careflight amongst others.
http://careflight.org/what_we_do/helico ... l_service/

But yes, stop worrying. Have an ambulance subscription and Medicare (or travel insurance), all will be fine. We are so lucky here in Australia!

[Xplora]

Using the latest in aviation, medical and communications technology, the Royal Flying Doctor Service works to provide emergency medical and primary health care services to anyone who lives, works or travels in rural and remote Australia.

The reality is different. I worked on a remote cattle station in the Kimberley which was a 2 hour very fast drive to hospital. One of the station crew suffered a severe head injury and the RFDS refused to come but they would come to the community on the station. Possibly the station was not remote enough. Air Ambulance is covered anywhere in Australia by Ambulance Vic. SA Ambulance more expensive than Vic but Vic will cover you if you live in some border towns.
Thanks for the heads up Neil about RFDS not being covered. It is probably because it is not a recognized ambulance service. The trouble with health funds is they may only cover you for a limited number of trips per year and may not cover you if you have to be transferred to another hospital. They also may not cover air ambulance. If you have private health cover then usually there is a level of ambulance cover which you should check. If anyone on this forum does not have some kind of cover that will include an air ambulance then it would be a great financial risk to go hiking.

[GPSGuided]

There can be a lot of interpretations with the statement "RFDS refused to come". As you pointed out, they are not primarily an ambulance service. They obviously also have a professional triage system in making these decisions and is aware of the practicalities of any request for service. Given the distance and the time for them to activate a flight, maybe someone should just drive the injured to the hospital quickly. Think of the amount of time it takes to attain a rescue after activating a PLB...