After five months in Australia, I have now been to the doctor’s for the first time. And I think it went pretty well. Well, I am waiting for the pathology tests results, but administrative-wise all went well.

The day we received our PR, 3 October, we got our Medicare cards in the mail that we applied for a couple of weeks prior. Pretty much enrolment in the Australian health care system. There are three types of Medicare cards, yellow, blue and green. Yellow is for the countries with a reciprocal health agreement with Australia and when you are visiting or are a student. 11 countries in total, and Sweden is one of them. We could have saved so much money, not getting travel insurance for our first time in Australia and just gone straight for the yellow card, but oh well. The blue card is for people who applied for their PR but still waiting for the outcome and green is the card for PR and citizens. So on the day we got our PR status, we received our blue cards in the mail and they were instantly made redundant because we had to get new cards that matched our status. Australia Services sent new cards out automatically though which was very refreshing. We have them digitally as well, along with everything else here, our MasterCards, our driving licenses. They are digital here which I like. But we are very dependent on our phones.

I got a longer appointment to start with to go over my health history, the doctor took notes on when I should get my next cervical screening for example, we talked about contraception and when that is due to renew etc. And he even explained how Medicare works quickly. If you are enrolled in Medicare, that means that you get money back from doctor’s appointments. You still pay full price, but get a certain amount sent back into your bank account. I got my money the same day. Super convenient. My visit this time cost $211 and I got $83 back, so still kinda expensive compared to what we are used to back home in Sweden. There, you pay $15 per visit unless it is with a specialist, then it is $45. But I guess that price can go down with private insurance? That is a later thing to deal with for us though.

The reason for my visit yesterday was bloated stomach. And not just a little. I wouldn’t go to the doctor otherwise. I am crossing my fingers for just a gluten intolerance, but worst case scenario, it could be coeliac disease. We set up a plan with tests depending on what the blood tests today says. I feel well-taken care off and we will just have to wait and see what the results are and how to deal with it.