Maternity care for Kiwis in Australia

I am wondering if anyone can shed light on whether as a Kiwi I receive free maternity services in Australia (with or without Medicare). We are moving and have just found out Im pregnant. From what I can find we are entitled to all the govt help with daycare etc but cant find info on maternity services

Pretty much what KiwiAtHeart said.

The maternity care model works similar to NZ but also a bit different as well. Each state may vary but in QLD You can:

a) Have shared care with your GP and the Hospital. You have most of your appts with your GP and milestone appts at the hospital with either a MW or Obs (i use this one). Hospital visits are free covered by Medicare and GP visits you will pay for. Dr appts I pay $60 per visit before Medicare rebate.

b) A team of MW's through the hospital. You will see a different MW/Obs every visit. You will have whatever MW is rostered on for your birth. Free.

c) High risk care through Hospital (only if you are a high risk pregnancy). Mostly Obs visits. Free

d) Private care with your own Ob/Gyne (user pays, I've heard up to $3k for appts and a natural birth).Health insurance may cover some of the cost but there is generally a 12 month stand down period for maternity related services.

e) Independent MW (You choose your MW and user pays - Not sure of cost)

When you arrive in Aus, register with Medicare straight away, there are offices everywhere. That entitles you to free public hospital medical care and Medicare rebates through your Dr. For example for me to have a general appt with my Dr he will charge $65, and Medicare will rebate about $33 of that. If you are lucky enough to get a bulk billing Dr you wont pay a cent for your appts. Medicare covers the cost of the appts.

As for Maternity leave. Legally you are entitled to 12 months unpaid leave as a permanent employee. Aus has just brought in 18 weeks of paid maternity leave but there are things you need to do to qualify like be employed for a certain period, Im not entirely sure of the ins and outs yet.
You may be eligible for the baby bonus which is paid at $400 per fortnight for 13 fortnights (6 months). You can only get one these though. So its either the Govt paid Mat Leave or the Baby Bonus, not both as they are both govt funded.
You may also be entitled to Family Tax A and B (aka WFF like in NZ) but this is income tested so that depends on your income. For us, based on our combined income for the financial year we are not eligible for Family Tax A or B.

Hope that helps.

ETA - In general medical treatment is generally quite expensive here. I paid $111 for a dating scan 2 weeks ago and will pay $160 for the 12 week scan in 2 weeks time.

Physio is not covered by Medicare and neither is dental unless you go through the public system and wait yonkies for treatment. This is where Health insurance is really important in Aus. Most policies only have short waiting periods like 2-3 months except for Maternity and major surgeries/health issues etc.

Edited by WestiesGirl

Thank you all so much. Makes things nice and clear now. I will be about 17 weeks when we go so will be due scan soon. we might go to antenatal classes to make some friends. Probably the best idea for us to. Im very excited. One other thing- when should we tell our families we are having another baby? There has been negativity about us going from my partners family which makes me not want to tell them until we are there

Just my two cents worth as a former resident of Oz, go to the Medicare website site and find what you need to take with you (proof that you are fully re-locating to Australia), it speeds the process of applying for Medicare up.

Enjoy.