If you don’t have it you should get it.
Cheap as at a pint (or a burrito, or two fancy doughnuts) a quarter, $11 auto payment is easy as to setup.
It can save you heaps. Ambulance fees can be $1000’s easily.
I am sure I am not the only one on here who has been thankful for having it.
did they give you any indication how much your recent mishap would’ve cost without it?
nope, but a 1.5 hour trip must have been $1000’s.
Also, I don’t know I’ll even get a bill, they asked if I was a member, I said yes, guess they search the database to check.
But it is best to carry your medicare card with you ambulance vic number stuck to it.
(p.s. I recall ambulance vic cover being reciprocated in some other states i.e QLD)
And its a shame this isn’t just built into our tax system.
Yeah NSW is shithouse w/r/t getting ambulance cover. You can’t just be an ambulance subscriber, you have to get covered through a 3rd party. Pretty sure any health insurance automatically includes it, as does the insurance you get through being a bike club member etc.
Took me ages to work it out, but I managed to find a HCF “ambulance only” plan. But I’ve since worked out that for a few extra bucks I can join Audax NSW and get ambulance +personal accident insurance +3rd party liability +income protection and bunch of other stuff. Reminds me that I should get onto it…
yeah, it is in other states in various ways I believe. QLD pay via their rates…?
I always carry a few different cards when out riding, Ambo Vic is definitely one of them!
one thing to check, a lot of insurance etc will cover your initial ambulance ride, but NOT any further transfers etc if necessary.
say mike had crashed really, really badly & needed to be transferred or airlifted to Royal Melb etc, that wouldn’t be covered by a lot of insurance companies, only the initial trip to Mansfield hospital.
that’s probably worth noting, as I can’t even imagine how much an airlift would cost!!
From what I can tell my MTBA license provides alot of things (income insurance, personal public liability and $5000 of non-medicare cover) but the ambulance cover comes out of that $5000 cover, which isn’t ideal.
yep, qld is either rates or eleccy bill…when i took my xmas ambo trip up in bris, they asked where i was staying, gave them my sisters address, zero problems.
From memory, which could be wrong: they pay thru their electricity bill. I recall there being some hoo-haa about it when I lived up there.
edit: beaten by tate
yeah, sorry, I meant utilities.
Should be paid for by GST or some other tax that everyone pays regardless of employment or homelessness
Just checked my HCF cover: it’s all ambulance and air ambulance services, as well as non-emergency ambulance transport if requested by your doctor. $90 a year for family cover. Effin bargain.
Agreed. It’s one of those things that if everyone paid the cost would be negligible.
yeah, or just put it in income tax and everyone is covered 100%
I dunno for sure, but I thought that if MikeD had crashed really really badly and was admitted to Mansfield hospital and then needed a medivac to the city, it wouldn’t be an ambulance cover thing. I think it’d just be part of the equitable care service everyone is supposed to get.
Peel st to royal melbourne was $1000.
So go from there.
I thought QLD revoked the electricity/ambo collab, great it’s back. Stoked that Tassie has it rolled in too. So dumb it’s not national.
you’d know more about it than me, but I was kinda sold on the idea when I was told about transfers etc not being covered. perhaps an airlift is an extreme example & I am incorrectly assuming these are the same category as a transfer.
I just know that if you have chest pain, get an ambulance and get admitted to say, Mildura Base Hospital, they’ll then fly you down to Melbourne for CABGs/Stenting if you need it and you’ll only be liable for the initial ambulance cost. Same as in Darwin; there is no interventionist Cardiologist there, so they’d diagnose someone and then fly them down to Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide for CABGs/Stenting, usually with a nurse escort on a commercial flight, but quite often they were too unstable so they’d go on a charter flight with a doctor and a nurse and a full ICU on board. It cost like $180,000 at least for something like that. It’s all part of the every Australian is entitled to the same level and quality of care no matter where they are.
But you’d better not quote me on all this. There may be circumstances where I’m wrong, and anyway; get ambulance cover!
I purchased for me and the fam. $89/yr for the lot isn’t bad.
bloody baargain mate