Can tourists get free healthcare in Australia, generally no, except limited free care for tourists from 11 countries with Reciprocal Health Care Agreement RHCA and emergency care in public hospital that may be billed later. For most tourists from USA, Canada, India, China, Germany, France, there is no free healthcare, you must pay for GP $80 to $120, emergency department $500 to $1,000, hospital bed $1,500 to $2,500 per day and surgery $20,000+, unless you have Overseas Visitor Health Cover or travel insurance that pays. For tourists from UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Malta, Slovenia and Italy, you have RHCA with Australia that allows you to enrol in Medicare for medically necessary treatment as public patient in public hospitals for free, including emergency and some GP, but not ambulance $1,000 to $1,500, private hospital, dental, optical or repatriation, so not fully free. For all tourists, public hospital emergency departments will treat you in emergency regardless of ability to pay, but you will be billed later, so not free. Some states provide free ambulance for residents but tourists pay. So tourists cannot get fully free healthcare in Australia like Australian citizens with Medicare, they need insurance. Even with RHCA, cover is limited to medically necessary public treatment only. So answer is no, tourists cannot get free healthcare generally, except limited free under RHCA for 11 countries, and even then ambulance and private not free, so travel insurance essential.
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