Travel Insurance for Oz

[andyjo1982]

Hi all

So I'm off down under in a fortnight and all of a sudden dawned on me, I should probably get/will need some sort of travel insurance. I'm going out on a 1 year working visa. Do I need any other insurance other than just to cover the flight? Am I correct in assuming if I were to be injured/bitten/eaten etc in OZ, that there is still some basic sort of health cover in place from the UK NHS as I'm still classed as a UK citizen?

Any help and experience would be much appreciated and any links to sites would be good too...

Thanks in advance

[saleen836]

andyjo1982 said:

Hi all

So I'm off down under in a fortnight and all of a sudden dawned on me, I should probably get/will need some sort of travel insurance. I'm going out on a 1 year working visa. Do I need any other insurance other than just to cover the flight? Am I correct in assuming if I were to be injured/bitten/eaten etc in OZ, that there is still some basic sort of health cover in place from the UK NHS as I'm still classed as a UK citizen?

Any help and experience would be much appreciated and any links to sites would be good too...

Thanks in advance

As Australia is not in Europe the UK NHS card is no use at all, and yes you will need insurance unless you have enough funds to pay for medical from your own pocket!?

[onny]

saleen836 said:

As Australia is not in Europe the UK NHS card is no use at all, and yes you will need insurance unless you have enough funds to pay for medical from your own pocket!?

I'm not sure this is true. I'm pretty sure there are reciprocal access to basic health care in Oz if you have a UK passport. If you're here on a working holiday visa then you will need a Tax File Number to work which means you are definately covered for medical care.

[Google [bot]]

You need a Medicare card and highly recommended to have insurance:

http://www.travellers.com.au/Planyourtrip/Medicare...

[blueheron]

You'll need to be looking at travel insurance that covers backpacking/longer stays. I spent 5 continuous months in the USA in 2009 and normal travel insurance didn't cut it, due to restrictions on the maximum amount of days being around 60 (90?) or so.