A Canberra woman has been left shocked after she was billed tens of thousands of dollars for a helicopter evacuation from Tasmania’s wilderness. Her case has put the focus on the cost of ambulance services in Australia, and the agreements in place between states and territories.
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00:00Walking Tasmania's Overland Track was on Kayla Dempsey's bucket list for years, but 17 kilometres
00:09into the six-day trek, disaster struck.
00:12On the first day, we'd summited Cradle Mountain, really excited to get back to the hut on the
00:17first night, and about a K away, I rolled my ankle.
00:21With the help of fellow walkers, she just made it to the second hut.
00:26It was progressively getting worse, overnight she hadn't slept in two days, the pain was
00:31unbearable and we were running out of food.
00:33Had a few chats to the rangers and they were suggesting that we get emergency airlifted
00:37out.
00:38As a last resort, the couple activated their personal locator beacon, and within 30 minutes,
00:43a helicopter carrying paramedics arrived to evacuate them.
00:48It was pretty upsetting, we really didn't want to, but we knew that we didn't have any
00:53other option.
00:5414 months later, long after returning home to Canberra, an unexpected invoice from the
00:59Tasmanian government arrived for $45,000.
01:05Very confronting to see, yeah, such a large sum as a bill, like I've never owed that much
01:11money, so to get something like that, it was very, very stressful.
01:15Ambulance services are not covered by Medicare, and fees vary around Australia, depending
01:20on which state or territory you live in.
01:22It gets complicated when you travel interstate.
01:25Some jurisdictions have what's called a reciprocal agreement to cover the cost of an ambulance,
01:31but not the ACT.
01:32The fact that other states and territories have that in place, but the ACT doesn't have
01:36reciprocal arrangements is, it's not good enough.
01:41After months of discussion with her private health insurer, the bill was paid.
01:46It definitely makes me wary to look into my insurances and what it covers, to make sure
01:50that I'm fully covered for the things that I want to do.
01:53A walk to remember.