Has anyone had a medically necessary breast reduction as a public patient and would be willing to share some of their experiences? I’m interested in some insight into the following areas:
Was your reduction covered by Medicare?
what deemed your reduction as medically necessary?
What was your overall out of pocket expenses?
What was your wait time like in the public system?
Medically necessary breast reduction.
Medically necessary breast reduction.
Posted in:
Health & Wellbeing
3 Replies
I’ve been on the wait list for 7 years. What made me eligible was pain, skin irritation and stable weight for a period of time.
There may be other criteria. It’s a loooong wait. If I wasn’t very low income I’d be working towards going private while I waited on the list. Sadly for me, my income won’t be changing anytime soon.
Not my personal experience- but as a health professional I had a patient who was able to get a breast reduction through Medicare.
She waited 2 years (and had someone else been deemed more urgent could have been bumped off at any time).
No out of pocket expenses - except she was able to use her health insurance for a private bed in a public hospital with a yearly gap of $250.
She had chronic neck and shoulder pain which enabled her eligibility.
I went privately because I heard the wait list was very long. After the Covid debacle I would imagine it’s only worse now. So glad I got it done. My out of pocket was about 8000 and was in very quickly, this was a very long time ago.