Why We're Lucky to Be in Australia: A Look at Global Healthcare Access

As we settle into another crisp Australian winter, it’s a good time to reflect on how fortunate we are to live in a country with relatively accessible healthcare options.

In places like Hong Kong and Indonesia, access to complementary therapies—like Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—can be much more limited. For example, a single TCM appointment in Hong Kong can cost around $880 HKD (approximately $170 AUD), and from what I’ve learned, there’s little to no health insurance coverage for these services.

You might think this is simply because TCM isn’t included under their equivalent of Medicare—but interestingly, many of our own patients have expressed that services like ours should be covered under Medicare here. And in some countries, like Taiwan and New Zealand, that’s already the case.

This comparison highlights something important: not only are we lucky to have more affordable access to holistic care in Australia, but many of the services often seen as “alternative” are, in fact, widely accepted as first-line treatment in other parts of the world. In Indonesia, for example, many people seek out TCM practitioners as their first point of contact for health concerns—when it's accessible.

So if you've ever hesitated to explore these kinds of treatments, now might be the perfect time to reconsider. You might be surprised by how mainstream and beneficial they can be—and how accessible they already are right here at home.

Stay warm this winter, and I hope to see you soon.

Warm regards,

Dr. Tony