Having a baby.....

Can anyone fill me in on health care system in NZ...

I am moving with my wife (who is about 6 weeks preg) to NZ in late October / early November.

We are moving from Australia

Purpose of move is for a 3yr project near Auckland.

We have top hospital private cover in Australia and are struggling to find out how NZ health system works. We are wondering do we keep paying our health insurance in Australia and fly her back to have the baby down under or do we find out a someway of doing it in NZ without incurring large health costs in NZ.

In australia - generally the govt covers around 50 - 80 % of the scheduled fee for a procedure . insurance companies will cover say up to 30% of the scheduled fee - if the actual cost of the procedure is > the scheduled fee then you pay the difference (the gap)

trying to establish what we will be up for in the land of the long white woolly sheep

All maternity services in NZ are free. :nice1

Congrats on the pregnancy.

Hope all goes well with your move, we have a 6 year old son and NZ is a great place to be with a child.

Not only are services free, but providers compete for your business and you can have a fairly decent choice of totally free or relatively low cost (for greater luxury) services.

Some pregnancy investigations (such as ultrasound scans) are not free if they are not ordered for specific reasons by an approved medical practitioner (not just your GP!), but they are usually not needed unless this is the case.

Best of luck!

Just remember that free pregnancy care only applies if you have residency (or perhaps a LTWV, I am not sure on that one). Hopefully you qualify with your 3-year work project, but you will want to check to make sure!

As you are coming from Oz (as Oz citizens?) I guess you get treated as for NZ citizens.