Seeking advice on vaccinations and health care for infant

R

Robinson

Registered User
Our first child is due in four weeks and I'm currently investigating infant vaccinations and health cover -all very confusing!

I'm interested to hear whether other families use pediatricians, GP's or the government health service for vaccinations and developmental checks and your experiences and the cost.

Also what cover do you have for your child? How much was it? What does it cover?

Any advice would be gratefully received...
 
We did and still do a mix of all you mentioned. For some vaccinations I went private bc the public one was too basic, developmental checks were done at both, but I favournpublic for that. when baby was sick I took him to either a GP or Pead depending on the sickness. One thing I would recommend for insurance is that you don't have to get a GP referral letter to see a paed. Ours was like that and it was a big pain in the behind. Also, go cashless if you can. saves so much time and effort.
My gp price is about$200, paed about $350-450 for us. Private vacs were $500 or $600.
we used to have BUPA carepro, under 10k a year, for semi-private. Covered everything but vacs, but always had the referral letter problem. I would not go with them again plus they really raised their prices this year.
 
we don't have cover for anyone in our family. have relied on public system for everything.
 
Can anybody suggest insurance cover that doesn't require a referral from GP to Pediatrician?

My work covers insurance for my child and we have gone to a pediatrician for everything - development checks, vaccinations, when the baby is sick, etc. (though the work insurance does not cover the full 100% of the cost) I really love our pediatrician because she is knowledgeable, friendly, patient, caring and always reachable for when we have questions (or at least her nurses are reachable and her nurses can reach her). However, she is really expensive, which is why insurance is so important. If I consider not working in the future, I would need to get insurance to cover my child's medical expenses because I really want to stick with our pediatrician.
 
If don't mind the hassle, GPs will alwaysngive a referral letter. One time I saw a GP about 5 min before the pediatrician, at the same practice.
there are some companies thatndont require it though, but we stopped searching when we got one through hubbies work recently.
 
Our insurance through HSBC and Allianz did not require a referral for a specialist. I would not recommend Allianz however as, in my experience, they are difficult with claims and have a very limited cashless system. I really liked HSBC Insurance.

As long as you have a GP that is experienced with children and good with them then I don't think you need to see a pediatrician for routine visits. We delivered at Matilda and had the first shots administered by a ped (as that seemed to be the recommended approach) and it cost a fortune and he didn't seem any better than my own GP. So we now go to my GP for shots etc.

Shenzhennifer - where were you getting your private vacs for $500 - $600 and is that per shot? Where I am taking my baby the last shots were $2500 for the 6 in one and one other. Seemed expensive but as it is covered by my insurance, it is easier for us than going to the public clinic and waiting ages.
 
Cara, I really liked the pediatrician at our local MCH but recently when my baby was unwell, and I tried to call the MCH to bring him in, they advised me to go to the hospital or to a private doctor! What is the procedure for getting an unwell baby seen in the public system?
 
I wonder for if I take my baby to the MCH for vaccine shots, should I also take him to private doctors as some vaccines are not offered at the public hospital?
 
Why not... I think you can combine. Though private docs tend to do a combo vaccine, while MCH administers them mostly individually so you'd have to check that there's no overlap. You can just show your private doc your MCH book and he would be able to advise if you need anything additional. We were advised to consider the one against Rotavirus which the MCH doesn't do.
 
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