Bronwen and Rob's Zoom travel story

Tassie trip takes an unexpected turn

Rob and Bronwen had been looking forward to their Tasmania holiday for months. After researching the trip carefully, they set off on a 10-day journey around the island along with Bronwen's brother and sister-in-law.

However, on day eight of their trip, just as they were nearing the end of the trip, Bronwen became short of breath after a walk, then later developed chest pain.

"I developed chest pain and the rest I cannot remember," she said. "I have no recollection of the next three days or so."

Bronwen was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Hobart, where a CT scan revealed a serious problem with her aorta, which would require urgent surgery to repair. Importantly, Bronwen had no prior heart problems, so this was entirely without warning.

"The next morning, we got the news that it was going to have to be an operation... so then we knew that it was quite serious," Rob said. "It was a shock."

Bronwen's major, open-heart surgery to repair her aorta lasted around eight hours, requiring three weeks of post-operative recovery in hospital. During this time, there were also restrictions on when Bronwen could travel home, with minimum recovery times required before she was medically cleared to fly. And while the reciprocal healthcare agreement between New Zealand and Australia covered the bulk of her treatment, the couple learned that reciprocal cover only goes so far.

"We knew that it was reciprocal," Bronwen said, but as the couple discovered, that cover wouldn't extend to medication, ambulance costs, flights and Rob's accommodation near the hospital, which would amount to a total of roughly $27,000.

Reciprocal healthcare: what you need to know

Reciprocal healthcare agreements between Australia and New Zealand allow visitors to access medically necessary public healthcare at reduced or no cost. However, it usually withholds cover for private treatment, ambulance services or medical evacuation back home. In a serious emergency, reciprocal healthcare alone may be severely lacking.

As Rob says, "reciprocal rights can make people think, 'oh, well, we don't need [insurance],' but a lot of people don't also think about all the additional costs that come with the medical incident, these additional factors that come into play."

How Zoom Travel Insurance helped  

Rob says that as soon as he got in touch with Zoom Travel Insurance, "I dealt with a case manager and had great service." The team from Zoom Travel Insurance explained what would be covered, guided him through the paperwork, and helped him manage the unexpected logistics of staying near the hospital for weeks. Just as importantly, Zoom Travel Insurance organised the couple's return home, including a business class seat for Bronwen and a nurse to accompany her home.

"The nurse was fantastic," Bronwen said, with Rob noting: "We couldn't have done it on our own."

Rob says that the practicalities of having travel insurance in place saved them a huge amount of stress, from their return home to practical issues when sorting out Bronwen's claim.

"For instance, there were social workers in the hospital, and Zoom were able to say, 'get a hold of the social workers and they'll be able to help you with aspects of getting information and putting it together for the claim.' They just seemed to make it helpful and easy if they could."

Today, Bronwen is well into recovery and gradually returning to normal life, including exercise classes, driving, and longer walks. However, the couple look back at their experience and are grateful not just for the monetary support, but also the practical assistance they were able to access through Zoom.

Bronwen's view is simple: "Well I can't imagine why people would even question [having travel insurance]. It's so logical. You just don't know what's going to happen to you when you travel."

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