[CPAP] buying a CPAP from the US for use in Australia.

[lab rat]

I'd like to add that if you are upgrading from a Resmed S9 to Airsense 10, do not buy a power adaptor because the S9 power cord can be used on the 10.

[PaytonA]

Australian pricing versus U.S. pricing is similar to something that I have had experience albeit somewhat backwards. When I was working for a company that extracted and purified magnesium metal, our price for sales in the U.S. were $1.35/lb but when we sold on the export market, we had to sell at $0.88/lb in order to be competitive. There were 2 companies in the U.S. producing magnesium. We were the 4th largest in the world and our domestic competitor was the largest. That competitor was so large that it was larger than all of the rest of the magnesium producers in the free world combined and they had pretty much the same pricing that we did. It was all a matter of markets.

[zonk]

It was all a matter of markets.

You can always get cheaper prices if you buy things in bulk. The same apply in the supermarket, large can of baked beans or large bundle of toilet rolls works out cheaper than smaller ones

As for CPAP in US, insurance is bigger than ResMed, ResMed cannot set prices more than what insurance prepared to pay for them

In Australia, my insurance pay $500 toward the machine (nothing for anything else) but have to buy the machine in Australia to make a claim otherwise nothing for machines purchased from overseas

I think we need some politician using CPAP, he/she might be prepared to listen and sympathize with our plight

[kmar92]

It was all a matter of markets.

I think we need some politician using CPAP, he/she might be prepared to listen and sympathize with our plight

We already have 1 Zonk - Clive Palmer!

[RipSnorter]

Hi All,

Like others I have purchased mine from the US and shipped it to the home of RESMED as well .

For those of you with health insurance - check with your provider. With mine they would only payout if the machine was purchased from a registered Australian business.

So if you have an ABN number, there's nothing to stop your company ordering the machine, then invoicing yourself (ensuring the ABN number is on the invoice) and you get your claim.

Also, if buying more than just the machine, ensure the invoice has one line item called something like "CPAP machine package". Otherwise the company will just process the line for your machine.

Now I'm trying to convince da Missus to get a machine for her too (it's a delicate conversations - sorry luv, but you snore bad and look like a train wreck in the morning, try clap ). I figure if she doesn't use the second machine I'll have a backup

[lab rat]

Hi All,

Like others I have purchased mine from the US and shipped it to the home of RESMED as well .

For those of you with health insurance - check with your provider. With mine they would only payout if the machine was purchased from a registered Australian business.

So if you have an ABN number, there's nothing to stop your company ordering the machine, then invoicing yourself (ensuring the ABN number is on the invoice) and you get your claim.

Also, if buying more than just the machine, ensure the invoice has one line item called something like "CPAP machine package". Otherwise the company will just process the line for your machine.

Now I'm trying to convince da Missus to get a machine for her too (it's a delicate conversations - sorry luv, but you snore bad and look like a train wreck in the morning, try clap ). I figure if she doesn't use the second machine I'll have a backup

The USD exchange rate is at a 4 year low. I'd wait until it was over 91c before ordering again. You may even get it for under AUD$1,000 and save the $56.20 customs charge.

[DrWho?]

Lab rat........as zonk posted suppliers 2 and 10 deliver to us in Australia. I can highly recommend supplier 10 having ordered from them. The trick to getting it delivered to your door in less working days is to order on a Monday or Tuesday morning our time I ordered it Tuesday morning and had it on Friday.

I didn't require a prescription for the machine.

[lab rat]

Lab rat........as zonk posted suppliers 2 and 10 deliver to us in Australia. I can highly recommend supplier 10 having ordered from them. The trick to getting it delivered to your door in less working days is to order on a Monday or Tuesday morning our time I ordered it Tuesday morning and had it on Friday.

I didn't require a prescription for the machine.

if you read the last page, I did exactly what you just said.

[RipSnorter]

Scratch my last post. I am now informed by my Insurer that the CPAP machine must be provided by a company willing to be an official CPAP supplier. Aparently just being an australian business is not enough.

My response included the question - why is my health insurer supporting an anticompetitive australian Cartel whose only reason for existence is to extort and price rig the supply of medical equipment for the treatment of severe chronic illnesses?

Honestly, the pollies need to man up over this. I can almost guarantee that the reasons we have a 200% markup in australia will be due to a series of middlemen taking their percentage of the price whilst not adding any value to the consumer or the producer.

Still, I'm still ahead by buying form overseas - and so is my health insurer, apparently.....

[lab rat]

Somebody should alert A Current Affair how we are importing Australian made medical devices from the US because of Resmed's price fixing. Show how pensioners cannot afford to buy locally.