Is This The Future Of Medical Service In Australia?

[tall_bearded01]

We all know that big Tony is besotted by all thing American (the user pays capital of the world), so is this the future of medical services in Australia.

A Perth woman on a year-long trip to the USA was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in the middle of gun fight on a  New Orleans street and was shot in the face. She has now been told by her medical insurer that they will not be paying for facial reconstruction surgery

Now if this had happen in Australia no problems as Medicare would cover the bill.

But because it happened in the US, unless her medical insurer has a change of heart , her options are pretty much limied to being disfigured for life, or finding a way to raise the $135,000 she need to have the surgery.

[punch*drunk]

Seems like an insurance problem more than a medical services problem, foreigners arent entitled to free medical care here either. Why did they knock her back? Cant she return to Australia for the surgery?

I was really worried about the travel insurance when we went to Thailand, the more you read about them the more you realise they try and get out of anything they can. My friends mum had a claim denied when she became so ill during a flight they'd had to reroute the plane and drop her off in Indonesia, not sure what that ended up costing them.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Is she wanting the treatment here or in America, TB?

[punch*drunk]

From what I can read she's back in Australia now, but the $135000 is for surgery in America. Someone has posted a link to her facebook page about a victims of crime compensation in Louisiana she should be enitiled to. Hopefully they can help her.

Her face doesnt look too bad, the injuries inside her mouth were pretty traumatic though. Probably the fact that its dental work makes it more expensive too.

[gkam2]

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@tall_bearded01 wrote:

We all know that big Tony is besotted by all thing American (the user pays capital of the world), so is this the future of medical services in Australia.

A Perth woman on a year-long trip to the USA was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in the middle of gun fight on a  New Orleans street and was shot in the face. She has now been told by her medical insurer that they will not be paying for facial reconstruction surgery

Now if this had happen in Australia no problems as Medicare would cover the bill.

You seem to have answered your own question, or perhaps you just wanted to have a shot at Tony Abbott.

[punch*drunk]

She's also got an offer from a Perth plastic surgeon to repair the damage free of charge. That was just after it happened in July, wonder what became of that.

[azureline**]

I want to state my objection to calling our PM big Tony............ that is all...............

[bushies.girl]

Yeah he really isn't that BIG lol    ..... I don't regard his as my PM at all, I didn't vote for him or his party

[gkam2]

The Abbott haters would never let the facts get in the way of a good slandering.

[polksaladallie]

It appears to me that she did not have travel insurance.