Mom with cancer

[Gardners]

Hello

 

My parents are fortunate enough to have the parental visas (PR), which had been granted three years ago. They still have not moved to Australia, (dad is dragging his feet).

My husband and I have been in Australia for seven years (Perth) and have our citizenship. Unfortunately, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 oesophagal cancer last year

November. She has gone through all her treatments (in South Africa) and has responded significantly well, the tumour has shrunk and the spots she had in her liver and lungs have disappeared.  Her oncologist in South Africa has said that he can't do anything more and she must return in October for a CT scan to see if the cancer has grown. Now my mom wants to move to Australia but is concerned about the costs.

Does anyone know if Medicare will cover things like CT scans etc? Maybe know of a good yet affordable oncologist?

Any info would be really helpful.

Thank you

[RYLC]

Have you tried contacting or visiting a Medicare office?  It would really be best to ask them directly as I think most of our answers would just be a guess.  Perhaps your GP can give advice about oncologists but it would really depend on whether she goes public or private and, more importantly, what the wait time would be to be seen as she'll be a "new" patient in the system. I'd ring Medicare as a first step. Private health would probably have exclusion periods too so you'll need to investigate that too.  

[monsta]

I assume she has access to medicare. Live saving treatments like a CT scan to check on cancer sound like the kind of thing medicare would cover. 

 

The issue is that if you ask Medicare, they might not be able to answer. They could tell you if she is covered by medicare, but that's probably it.

 

Medicare imposes a lot of rules on the doctors around which treatments they can prescribe. If you get desperate, you might have to book an appointment with a private oncologist. You can explain your mother's situation and they can explain to you what the typical treatment path is under medicare. Your mom can then ask her doctor in South Africa if he thinks that is sufficient. Just confirm the oncologist works both under the private system and the public, or they might not know what is covered under medicare. 

 

Its also worth asking what the typical wait times are for operations. 

 

The reason I suggest all that, is its going to be quite a complex answer. For example, the ongolosit might say, " well if we see xxx on the CT scan we will operate immediately and do a xyz. But if we only see yyy then your mom will have to book in for surgery and that could take up to 6 months". 

 

I have a lot of faith in our healthcare system here... so you would only do all this research for piece of mind.

 

But it might turn out that in South Africa if they see yyy on her CT, then she can be operated on within a week. Her South African doctor may tell you that is a far better situation for her.

[Nev]

My wife had breast cancer here in Australia 2 years back.

 

The care for cancer in Australia even when using medicare is of the best in the world, as it is considered life threatening there are almost no waiting times on anything so the chemo, radiation treatment doctors, oncologists etc are all covered and free, you can go private if you want to pick and choose your doctor or hospital, but the state ones are great and even though we were private we went to state hospitals

 

There will be some expenses and they could add up, some of the medicine is not covered, also I would check about finding an oncologist here, your best bet is to book an appointment with a local GP here and talk to them about it, they will have the best idea and can refer you to get more advice

[Gardners]

Thank you all so much for your advice, I really appreciate it. I have emailed Medicare and I will contact a GP when my mom comes over.

Thanks again

 

[Nev]

Happy to help, shout if you have any other questions and i can pass them on to my wife

[monsta]

@Gardners  Just let her know its not private health care. She might not get gourmet food or a private room... but as Nev said, the level of care is generally very good. In my experience, its better than many private hospitals in South Africa.

Edited June 19, 2017 by monsta

[acmac]

Hi.

 

Just wanting to know, my siblings and I now all live in Australia, and waiting for folks 143 visa to come through. If, while waiting for the visa, either is diagnosed with cancer, and it's treatable, is there a chance for them to get through their medicals, and if not, is there some sort of compassionate consideration considering all their kids are living here? If still not possible, is there any other option for them to come over on a different visa, etc?

 

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you

[Riekie]

All the info about cancer treatment options in Australia, what is covered, what is not etc: https://www.cancerwa.asn.au/patients/making-decisions-about-treatment/#treatment-costs