Tummy Tuck Cost in Thailand: What Australians Actually Pay in AUD

By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: 28 AUG 2026

If you have searched this, you probably typed three letters at the end that most people do not: aud. You did that because you have already read four Thai clinic pages that quoted a number in baht with no conversion basis, or a number in Australian dollars with no date, and you want to know what will actually leave your account.

That is a reasonable thing to want and a strange thing to have to fight for. So this article gives you our real prices in both currencies, the published figures from named Australian specialist plastic surgeons alongside them, and the Medicare position — which is more generous than most people expect and much narrower than most people hope.

I will also tell you which patients I decline to operate on, because a price list without that is a menu, not medical information.

Why almost nobody publishes an AUD figure

Two reasons, one boring and one not.

The boring one: our costs are in baht. Theatre time, implants, nursing, the hospital's overheads and my fee are all denominated in Thai baht, so the baht price is the contracted price and the Australian dollar figure is a conversion that moves daily. Any clinic quoting a fixed AUD price is either absorbing the currency risk quietly or repricing when you are not looking.

The less boring one: a stable published AUD price is easy to compare, and comparison is not in every operator's interest.

Our position is that the published baht figure is what you pay, and the AUD figures below are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD and confirmed at booking. Do not apply a single conversion formula to the whole list yourself; the implied rate across our schedule is not identical line to line.

What an abdominoplasty costs here, in baht and Australian dollars

ProcedureTHBAUD (indicative)Abdominoplasty฿160,000A$7,000Extended abdominoplasty฿190,000A$8,300Circumferential body lift฿340,000A$14,800VASER liposuction, first area฿90,000A$4,000VASER with Renuvion, first area฿135,000A$5,900

Every one of those figures includes airport transfer, a pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital, monitoring in ICU on the first night, a serviced apartment, medications to take home, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage, and coordinator support. Intrarat Hospital is ISO 9001:2015 certified.

If you are asking about a mini abdominoplasty specifically, [CONFIRM: current mini abdominoplasty price from /price] — it does not appear on our published schedule and I will not guess at it.

None of these figures include airfares, your support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up at home. Those are real and they are substantial, and I have itemised all eleven of them separately.

Mini, full and extended: why the price moves

The price differences are not arbitrary tiers. They track how much of the abdominal wall is being operated on and for how long you are anaesthetised.

• A mini abdominoplasty addresses skin and fat below the umbilicus only. The umbilicus is not moved. It suits a narrow group: good skin tone above the navel, no meaningful rectus diastasis — the separation of the vertical abdominal muscles — and laxity confined to the lower abdomen. Most people who want one do not qualify for one.

• A full abdominoplasty raises the skin and fat flap to the costal margin, repairs the diastasis with a plication suture line from the xiphoid to the pubis, removes the redundant skin, and transposes the umbilicus through a new opening. Longer operation, larger dissection, more drains.

• An extended abdominoplasty carries the resection around the flanks. It exists for patients whose laxity does not stop at the hip. Longer scar, longer table time.

• A circumferential body lift goes all the way around, and is a fundamentally different undertaking — usually post-massive-weight-loss, usually with position changes on the table, and with a complication profile to match.

The more tissue is undermined, the higher the risk of seroma (fluid collection), wound-edge separation and fat necrosis. You are paying more for the extended operation because it is a bigger operation, and it is a bigger operation because it carries more risk. Those two facts are the same fact.

What Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish

I want you comparing against real Australian numbers rather than a straw man, so here are figures published by named FRACS surgeons and Australian price aggregators:

SourceMiniFull / standardExtended, fleur-de-lis or circumferentialDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive, cosmetic)from A$23,200from A$31,300from A$35,000Dr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive, Medicare-eligible)from A$15,200from A$21,800from A$24,700Dr Jeremy Hunt, Sydneyfrom A$7,000from A$12,000from A$15,000Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydney—from A$16,900 with top private cover; from A$26,900 without—Plastic Surgery Hub (national aggregate)A$8,000–16,000A$12,000–20,000within A$12,000–24,000

Dr Turner also lists a consultation fee of A$450, and two consultations are required before surgery. Dr Hunt's figures are quoted as starting points and his page puts the Sydney average at "A$12,000 to over A$20,000."

Notice the spread. Australian abdominoplasty is not one price; it is a range of roughly A$12,000 to A$35,000 depending on the operation, the surgeon, the city and whether a Medicare item applies. Comparing our A$7,000 / ฿160,000 against the top of that range flatters us. Comparing it against Dr Hunt's from-A$12,000 is fairer, and even then you must add the eleven non-surgical line items before the comparison means anything.

The Medicare position: MBS item 30175

This is the part I would most like Australian readers to take seriously, because for a subset of you the right answer is to have this operation at home.

MBS item 30175 covers "radical abdominoplasty, with repair of rectus diastasis, excision of skin and subcutaneous tissue, and transposition of umbilicus." Its criteria are strict and cumulative — you must satisfy all of them:

• The abdominal wall defect must be a consequence of pregnancy.

• Diastasis of at least 3cm, confirmed by diagnostic imaging.

• Either moderate-to-severe pain or discomfort at the diastasis site during functional use, or low back pain or urinary symptoms likely attributable to the rectus diastasis — documented in your records.

• Failed non-surgical conservative treatment, including physiotherapy.

• Not pregnant in the last 12 months.

• Applicable once per lifetime.

The schedule fee is A$1,161.05, with a 75% benefit of A$870.80. That rebate is not the point. The point is that item eligibility is what unlocks private health insurance cover for the hospital and theatre component, which is why Dr Turner's Medicare-eligible column sits roughly A$8,000 to A$9,500 below his cosmetic column for the same operation.

If you have a documented post-pregnancy diastasis of 3cm or more with functional symptoms and failed physiotherapy, go and be assessed in Australia first. With an item number and good private cover, your out-of-pocket at home may land close to — or below — the true all-in cost of coming here, and you will have your surgeon in the same city for the next twelve months. Medicare does not cover overseas treatment, and Australia has no reciprocal health agreement with Thailand, so travelling forfeits that entirely.

What the price does not buy

An abdominoplasty is a major operation with a real complication profile, and cost has nothing to do with whether these happen to you.

Seroma is the commonest — a collection of fluid in the dead space under the flap, sometimes needing repeated aspiration. Haematoma can require a return to theatre. Infection, wound-edge separation and fat necrosis all occur, and are more likely if you smoke, if you are diabetic, or if the resection is extensive. Skin necrosis at the flap edge or around the umbilicus is uncommon but disfiguring when it happens. Sensation above the scar is altered in essentially everyone and does not fully return in many. The scar is permanent, hip to hip, and will be red and raised for months. Dog ears at the lateral ends sometimes need a second small procedure.

And venous thromboembolism — clot in the leg veins that can travel to the lungs — is the complication that kills abdominoplasty patients. It is why we monitor in ICU on the first night, why we mobilise you early, and why the flight home is a clinical decision rather than a booking.

Who I decline to operate on

Current smokers who will not stop. I ask for a minimum of four weeks off nicotine entirely, including vapes and patches, because nicotine constricts the small vessels that keep the flap edge alive, and a necrotic abdominoplasty flap is a catastrophe I cannot undo in one trip.

Patients whose weight is still moving significantly. If you are mid-way through weight loss, or have had bariatric surgery within the last year, the result will not hold. Wait.

Patients with poorly controlled diabetes, uninvestigated cardiac symptoms, or a personal history of unexplained clotting who have not been worked up. And patients who cannot describe what they want in terms of their own body — only in terms of somebody else's.

I would rather lose a booking than do an operation I do not believe in. That is a slower way to run a practice and it is the only version of it I am willing to run.

The revision loading, and why it exists

If your abdominoplasty was performed elsewhere and you are coming to me to correct it, the price is the base price plus 30%. That is not opportunism. Revision abdominoplasty means operating through scarred, poorly vascularised tissue with distorted anatomy and often a deficient skin envelope. It takes longer, it carries higher risk, and the range of achievable results is narrower. I will tell you before you book what I think is realistically achievable, and sometimes that answer is "less than you are hoping for."

When to seek care

Emergency — nearest emergency department immediately, in any country, without waiting to contact us. Sudden breathlessness, chest pain, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf: these suggest venous thromboembolism and can occur days to weeks post-operatively, including in flight and after you get home to Australia. Tell the cabin crew if you are in the air. Also emergency: soaking bleeding through dressings, a rapidly expanding tense swelling of the abdomen, fever above 38.5°C with rigors, or skin over the abdomen turning dusky, grey or black.

Same-day review — clinic in Bangkok, or GP or emergency department in Australia. Pain that is escalating after day three instead of settling; any separation of the wound edges; purulent or foul-smelling discharge; redness spreading outward from the incision; a fluid collection that is visibly growing or making the abdomen feel tight; drain output that suddenly increases or turns bloody; inability to pass urine.

Next available appointment. A firm lump in the flap that is not resolving, a dog ear, persistent numbness that has plateaued, a raised or itchy scar, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. That last one is common enough that it belongs on this list, and it is worth saying out loud rather than sitting with.

How to compare two quotes honestly

Put both operations in the same units. Take the Australian quote, confirm whether an MBS item applies and what your fund will actually pay, and write down the out-of-pocket. Take the Bangkok quote, add airfares for two, accommodation and food beyond the package, specialised medical travel insurance, lost income, a week of extended-stay contingency and twelve months of scar management. Then compare those two totals — not the surgical fees.

If the gap is still large, that is a real finding. If the gap has closed to a couple of thousand dollars, then you are no longer making a financial decision, and you should choose on the surgeon, the follow-up and the honesty of what you have been told.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Does Medicare or Your Health Fund Cover Complications From Overseas Surgery?

By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: 28 AUG 2026

You have probably been told two different things, both with complete confidence. One is that Medicare will not touch you if you have surgery overseas. The other is that it does not matter, because complications are rare and the hospital handles everything anyway.

The first is an overstatement. The second is a sales line. The accurate answer splits into three questions people tend to run together: what happens to the money you spend in Thailand, what happens if you need care in Australia afterwards, and what your health fund and travel insurer will actually do.

This page separates them. Where the honest answer is "generally" or "unlikely" rather than "never," we say so, because getting this wrong in either direction costs people money they did not budget for.

Does Medicare cover treatment you receive overseas?

No. Medicare does not cover medical treatment received outside Australia. That is not a cosmetic surgery rule or a medical tourism rule — it is how Medicare works. The Medicare Benefits Schedule pays benefits for services provided in Australia, and a consultation, an operation or a dressing change performed in Bangkok attracts no rebate of any kind.

Victoria's Better Health Channel states it in the way most people first meet it: "Medicare Australia is unlikely to cover overseas medical treatment, and private health insurance may not cover it either."

So every baht you spend in Thailand — surgeon, anaesthetist, hospital, implants, garments, post-operative reviews, and any unplanned return to theatre — is money you will not see again.

Why the reciprocal agreement question matters, and why Thailand is not on the list

Australia has reciprocal health care agreements with a small number of countries. The Better Health Channel notes there are agreements with "11 countries, and these are mostly for emergency treatment only."

Thailand is not one of them. There is no arrangement under which the Australian government contributes to the cost of your care in a Thai hospital, public or private. If you are admitted in Bangkok, the bill is yours or your insurer's, and it is payable in Thailand.

It is also worth knowing what these agreements do where they exist: they typically cover care that becomes medically necessary while you are travelling, not planned elective procedures you flew there to have. Even if Thailand were on the list, it would not fund an elective cosmetic operation.

What Medicare does still cover when you get home

This is the part stated far too broadly, and it matters, because the fear of being "blacklisted" keeps people from seeking care they are entitled to.

There is no Medicare exclusion keyed to where a previous operation happened. Medicare does not ask where your surgery was performed before deciding whether to pay for a consultation today. Specifically:

• A consultation with your GP in Australia attracts its normal Medicare rebate, whatever prompted it — including a wound review, a swab, a pathology request, or a referral.

• Genuine complications are treated as medical care. An infection is an infection, a haematoma is a haematoma, and a pulmonary embolism is a medical emergency. They are managed on clinical need.

• If you are Medicare-eligible and present to a public hospital emergency department, you are treated as a public patient on clinical need. Nobody triages you by the country your operation was performed in.

What Medicare will not do is fund the revision. A rebate attaches to a listed item performed for a listed clinical indication. Treating your infection is medical care. Redoing your rhinoplasty because you dislike the shape is a cosmetic procedure, and cosmetic procedures attract no Medicare benefit wherever they are performed.

The line, in practice, is between treating a medical problem and improving an aesthetic outcome. Emergency and acute care sits firmly on the first side. Revision surgery usually sits on the second.

Which cosmetic-adjacent procedures have Medicare item numbers, and on what criteria

Two procedures often described as cosmetic do have Medicare item numbers when strict clinical criteria are met — and both are worth knowing about before you spend money abroad, because you may be eligible at home for something you assumed you were not.

Upper eyelid reduction — MBS item 45617. The descriptor covers upper eyelid reduction where the reduction is for a history of demonstrated visual impairment, intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid, herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos, facial nerve palsy, post-traumatic scarring, or restoration of symmetry of the opposite upper eyelid in respect of one of those conditions — and where "photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for this service is documented in the patient notes." In practice that means clear photographs showing eyelid skin prolapsing over the lashes in relaxed straight-ahead gaze and obstructing the visual field. The schedule fee at the time of writing is $281.40, with a 75% benefit of $211.05 and an 85% benefit of $239.20.

Post-pregnancy abdominoplasty — MBS item 30175. Introduced on 1 July 2022, this covers "radical abdominoplasty, with repair of rectus diastasis, excision of skin and subcutaneous tissue, and transposition of umbilicus" where the abdominal wall defect is a consequence of pregnancy. All of the following must be met: a documented separation of the rectus abdominis muscles of at least 3cm, confirmed on diagnostic imaging before the procedure; moderate-severity pain or discomfort at the site of the diastasis during functional activities, and/or lower back pain or urinary symptoms; and failure to respond to non-surgical conservative management including physiotherapy. The schedule fee at the time of writing is $1,161.05, with a 75% benefit of $870.80.

Two cautions. First, schedule fees and criteria change — check the current MBS or ask your GP rather than relying on a figure on any clinic's website, including ours. Second, and more importantly: these item numbers apply to services performed in Australia. Meeting the clinical criteria does not make an overseas operation rebatable. If you meet the criteria for 30175, the sensible next step is a conversation with an Australian surgeon, not a flight.

Does private health insurance cover surgery performed overseas?

Generally, no — and we will not put it more strongly, because policies differ and blanket statements get people into trouble.

Australian private health insurance is built around hospital treatment provided in Australia. Most hospital policies do not extend to procedures performed overseas, and purely cosmetic procedures are excluded regardless of where they happen. Some funds offer specific overseas products; none of that is something to assume applies to you.

The only reliable way to know is to ask your fund, in writing, naming the procedure and the country, and keep the answer. A verbal assurance from a call centre is not a policy term, and a facilitator's summary of your policy is not your policy.

Will your fund cover follow-up or revision at home?

This is the question people should be asking and usually are not, and the answer is genuinely uncertain in advance.

Where you are admitted for an acute complication — sepsis, evacuation of a haematoma, wound debridement, treatment of a pulmonary embolism — you are generally receiving hospital treatment for a medical condition, which is what hospital cover exists for. Whether your fund pays depends on your level of cover, the clinical categories on your policy, your waiting periods, and whether the admission is coded as treatment of a complication or as a cosmetic revision.

Where you are seeking a revision to improve the result, you are asking a fund to pay for cosmetic surgery, and it generally will not.

The practical risk is the grey zone between, and the practical protection is documentation: a clear operation report, a clear GP referral, and clinical notes describing the problem in medical terms. Patients who arrive home with nothing in writing have a much harder time than patients who arrive with the file.

What travel insurance does and does not do

Standard travel insurance generally excludes medical tourism. Smartraveller states it plainly: "Basic travel insurance policies rarely cover medical tourism." It also gives the number that should focus your attention: "If you have complications they can't treat overseas, you may need medical evacuation back to Australia. This can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."

If you buy a specialised policy, read what it actually covers: post-operative care, complications, and medical evacuation. Ask specifically whether it covers complications of the elective procedure itself, because many policies that appear to cover medical tourism cover only unrelated illness and accident while travelling.

The table: what is covered, what is not, and what depends

SituationMedicarePrivate health fundTravel insuranceYour elective surgery in ThailandNo rebateGenerally not coveredGenerally excluded unless you hold a specialised medical tourism policyPost-operative reviews and dressings in ThailandNo rebateGenerally not coveredDepends entirely on the policy wordingEmergency admission in a Thai hospital for a complicationNo rebate. No reciprocal agreement with ThailandGenerally not coveredOnly if the policy covers complications of the procedure — many do notMedical evacuation to AustraliaNoNoOnly under a policy that explicitly includes itGP consultation in Australia after you returnNormal rebate applies, whatever prompted the visitNot applicableNot applicablePublic hospital emergency department in AustraliaTreated as a public patient on clinical needNot applicableNot applicablePrivate hospital admission in Australia for an acute complicationMedicare benefits apply to eligible items as usualDepends on level of cover, clinical categories, waiting periods and codingNot applicableRevision surgery to improve the aesthetic resultNo — cosmetic procedures attract no benefitGenerally not coveredNot applicableFunctional upper blepharoplasty in Australia meeting the criteriaMBS item 45617, strict criteria, photographic evidence requiredMay contribute where criteria are metNot applicablePost-pregnancy abdominoplasty in Australia meeting the criteriaMBS item 30175, strict criteria including ≥3cm diastasis on imaging and failed physiotherapyMay contribute where criteria are metNot applicable

What this actually costs if it goes wrong

The published Australian evidence is thinner and more specific than the headlines suggest, and we would rather give you the real numbers than a frightening adjective.

An audit at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital found that of 331 breast implant removal cases, 8 — 2.4% — involved devices inserted overseas. The total cost to that department exceeded AU$110,000, about 4% of the hospital's spending on breast device explantations. The authors concluded that complications from overseas implant procedures cost "a small percentage of the hospital budget for breast procedures", while noting that with rising cosmetic tourism "this figure could increase in the following years." A 2026 paper in the ANZ Journal of Surgery examines the impact of overseas cosmetic tourism on the Australian public hospital system directly.

Now scale that to one person, which is the scale you care about. Eight patients, seven emergency procedures, two needing multiple operations, median length of stay over eight days and one as long as 28. That is what a complication looks like from the inside: not a bill, but a fortnight of your life, unpaid leave, someone else collecting your children, and an infectious diseases consult.

Here is the candid part. If your budget works only if nothing goes wrong, you do not have a budget — you have a hope. The cost that breaks people is almost never the operation. It is the second flight, the unpaid leave, the private anaesthetist for a revision, or three weeks of intravenous antibiotics. Before booking, decide what you would do if you needed AU$15,000 and four weeks off at short notice. If there is no answer, the right decision may be to have the surgery in Australia, where a complication is a Medicare and health fund problem rather than a personal one. That is a legitimate reason to stay home, and we would rather say it than have you find out later.

When to seek care

Cover questions are worth sorting out in advance. Symptoms are not worth waiting on.

Emergency, immediately, by ambulance if you cannot walk — in a Bangkok hotel, at the airport, or at home: chest pain, breathlessness, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf. That is possible deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, the complication most likely to kill you. Do not phone the clinic first. Also emergency: bleeding soaking through dressings, a breast or abdomen swelling rapidly and becoming tight and painful, fever above 38.5°C with shaking chills, spreading redness with dusky, blistered or numb skin, or sudden confusion or collapse.

Same-day review, not tomorrow: a wound edge turning grey or black, discharge that has become cloudy, thick or foul-smelling, pain escalating rather than settling after day three, one-sided calf ache, or a temperature creeping up over 24 hours.

In Australia, go to a public hospital emergency department for anything in the first group, or see your GP the same day for anything in the second. Your Medicare card works normally, nobody will refuse you care, and Australian emergency clinicians manage complications of overseas surgery routinely. Take your operation report, implant details, medication list and surgeon's contact details, and send the notes back to your surgeon afterwards.

What we would confirm in writing before booking

Ask your health fund, in writing, naming the procedure and the country, whether it will contribute to anything performed overseas and to any admission for a complication afterwards. Ask your travel insurer, in writing, whether the policy covers complications of the elective procedure itself and medical evacuation, and read the exclusions rather than the brochure. Ask your GP whether your concern might meet the criteria for an item number in Australia — particularly for eyelid surgery or abdominoplasty after pregnancy, where the criteria are strict but real. And ask your surgeon for the operation report, implant stickers and discharge summary before you fly home: the Australian clinician who sees you in week three will need all three, and asking from 7,000 kilometres away is much harder than asking at the front desk.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Blepharoplasty Cost: Australia vs Thailand, and When Medicare Applies

By Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689
Last reviewed: 28/AUG/2026

You looked in the mirror and the upper lids have started to sit on your lashes. Perhaps you have begun lifting your brows without meaning to, or noticed that you are tilting your chin up to read a road sign. Perhaps it is simply that you look tired in photographs when you are not tired.

Then you asked what it costs in Australia, and the answers came back somewhere between three thousand and eighteen thousand dollars depending on which page you landed on, with no explanation of the spread.

I am a plastic surgeon in Bangkok, so you would expect this article to end with an argument for coming here. For a good number of readers it will not. Eyelid surgery is the procedure where the case for travelling is weakest, and where the Medicare position at home is strongest. I would rather set that out clearly than have you spend money badly.

What eyelid surgery costs in Australia

Here is what named Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish.

SourceUpper blepharoplastyLower blepharoplastyUpper and lower combinedDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive)around A$6,000 in rooms under local; from A$8,300 in hospital under generalA$9,000–14,000approximately A$12,000–18,000Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydneyfrom A$4,500 incl. GSTfrom A$8,500 incl. GST—Dr Mark Kohout, SydneyA$3,000–8,000 depending on lids treated; A$4,500–11,500 once all fees are counted——

Dr Kohout's practice usefully breaks that down: surgeon's fees A$2,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees A$750–3,000, hospital or clinic fees A$1,000–2,500. Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two before surgery.

The spread is not surgeons disagreeing about the value of their work. It is mostly a question of where the operation happens. An upper blepharoplasty performed in a consulting suite under local anaesthetic has no hospital fee and no anaesthetist's fee. The same operation under general anaesthetic in a licensed private hospital acquires both. That single decision moves the price by thousands.

When Medicare does pay: MBS item 45617, exactly

This is the part of the article I most want you to read, because a proportion of the people searching "blepharoplasty cost Australia" are entitled to a rebate at home and do not know it.

MBS item 45617 covers upper eyelid reduction. Its current descriptor requires that:

• the reduction is for any of the following — (i) history of a demonstrated visual impairment; (ii) intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid; (iii) herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos; (iv) facial nerve palsy; (v) post-traumatic scarring; (vi) the restoration of symmetry of the contralateral upper eyelid in respect of one of the conditions in (i) to (v); and

• photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for the service is documented in the patient notes.

The schedule fee is A$281.40, with a 75% benefit of A$211.05 and an 85% benefit of A$239.20. The Extended Medicare Safety Net cap is A$225.15.

Two things follow from those numbers. First, the rebate itself is small — it will not meaningfully change the cost of your operation on its own. Second, and far more importantly, item eligibility is what allows private health insurance to contribute to hospital and theatre fees. That is where the real money is, and it is why the same operation costs so differently depending on whether an item number applies.

What the 2022 amendment changed, and why the internet has it wrong

You will read on many Australian pages that Medicare requires formal visual field testing confirmed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. That was true. It is no longer the descriptor.

The item was amended with effect from 1 November 2022. The mandatory visual field testing requirement was removed and replaced with a requirement that the practitioner document "a history of a demonstrated visual impairment" in the patient's notes. The photographic or diagnostic imaging requirement was retained.

I am flagging this precisely because so much of what is published about medical tourism is out of date, copied between sites, and never re-checked. Take the current descriptor to your Australian surgeon and let them assess you against it. If your lids obstruct your visual axis, if you are compensating with your brow, if you have chronic intertriginous inflammation in the lid fold — you may be eligible, and eligibility is decided in Australia, not here.

The case for having this done in Australia

If item 45617 applies to you and you hold private hospital cover at the relevant tier with waiting periods served, my honest view is that you should have this operation at home. Not because Bangkok surgery is unsafe, but because the arithmetic and the aftercare both favour Australia in this specific case.

Medicare does not cover overseas medical treatment. Australia has no reciprocal health care agreement with Thailand. Your private fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas, and may not cover follow-up at home either. Travelling means writing off an entitlement you have already paid premiums for.

There is a second reason, and it is clinical. Eyelid surgery is millimetre surgery on a structure that has to close over your cornea every few seconds for the rest of your life. The reviews that matter — at one week, six weeks, three months, a year — are easier to attend when your surgeon is in your city. Most patients never need more than reassurance at those visits. The ones who do need something more need it close by.

What we charge, in baht and Australian dollars

ProcedureTHBAUD (indicative)Double eyelid surgery (local anaesthetic)฿32,000A$1,400Upper and lower eyelid surgery (general anaesthetic)฿110,000A$4,800

AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one.

Both include airport transfer, pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified; it is not JCI-accredited), post-operative monitoring, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. Neither includes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is base price plus 30%.

Double eyelid surgery is a different operation

The A$1,400 / ฿32,000 line is not a cheaper version of an upper blepharoplasty. It is a different procedure with a different aim.

Double eyelid surgery creates or defines a supratarsal crease in an eyelid that does not have one, or has an inconsistent or partial one. It is performed by incisional or suture techniques and the design decisions — crease height, shape, whether the epicanthal fold is addressed — are aesthetic and cultural rather than functional. Getting it right requires a very specific conversation about what you want your eye to look like, and getting it wrong is highly visible.

An upper blepharoplasty for dermatochalasis removes redundant skin, and sometimes a conservative amount of orbital fat, from a lid that already has a crease. Different problem, different operation, different price.

If you are not sure which one you are asking about, that is the first thing to establish, before anyone quotes you anything.

The all-in comparison, once travel is counted

This is where eyelid surgery differs from body contouring, and where I will argue against my own commercial interest.

The gap between an Australian upper blepharoplasty in rooms — around A$6,000 at Dr Turner's practice, from A$4,500 at Dr Sandercoe's — and our double eyelid price of A$1,400 looks like a saving of several thousand dollars. Now add: two return airfares if you bring someone, accommodation and food beyond the package, a specialised medical travel insurance policy that actually covers elective surgery abroad, and lost income at the Australian full-time average of A$2,083.70 per week.

For a low-cost, short-recovery procedure, those additions can consume most or all of the apparent saving. The travel cost is roughly fixed regardless of what operation you have. On a A$7,000 abdominoplasty gap it is a modest fraction. On a A$4,000 eyelid gap it is most of it.

The economics only start to work if you are combining eyelid surgery with something substantial in the same trip — a face and neck lift, body contouring — so the travel is amortised across a larger procedure. If eyelid surgery is the only reason you would get on the plane, I would think very carefully, and I would get assessed against MBS 45617 first.

The complications, including the one that can cost you your sight

Every eyelid operation carries these, at any price, in any country.

Dry eye and grittiness are common early and usually settle, but can be persistent, particularly if you already have dry eye, have had laser refractive surgery, or take medications that reduce tear production. Lagophthalmos — incomplete closure of the lids — can follow over-resection of skin and can threaten the cornea. In lower lid surgery, ectropion and lower lid retraction, where the lid pulls away from or down off the globe, are the characteristic complications and can require further surgery to correct. Scleral show, a rounded or hollowed eye, and asymmetry between the two sides all occur. Unmasking or worsening of an unrecognised ptosis — a drooping upper lid from a levator problem rather than excess skin — is a specific trap, and is why the lid position is assessed separately from the skin before surgery. Chemosis, prolonged swelling, visible scarring, and altered sensation are all possible.

And the one that must never be softened: retrobulbar haematoma. Bleeding behind the eye raises orbital pressure and can cause permanent loss of vision. It is rare. It is a surgical emergency measured in hours, not days. Its symptoms are in the section below, and if you have them you go to hospital immediately.

Who I decline to operate on

Patients with significant untreated dry eye, until an ophthalmologist has assessed and managed it. Patients on anticoagulants that have not been reviewed and planned around with the prescribing doctor. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension, because bleeding risk in the orbit is not a hypothetical. Patients whose real problem is brow descent rather than lid skin, in whom removing lid skin will make things worse. And patients who bring in a photograph of someone else's eyes and want those eyes, because I cannot give them to you and I would rather say so before surgery than after.

When to seek care

Emergency — go to a hospital emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or in Australia, and do not wait for anyone to reply to a message. Sudden severe pain behind or around the eye, a hard or bulging eye, rapidly increasing swelling and bruising of the lid, any decrease in vision, double vision, or seeing flashes or a curtain across your vision. These may indicate retrobulbar haematoma or another sight-threatening problem, and time matters. Also emergency: fever above 38.5°C with a red, hot, swollen, painful lid and difficulty moving the eye, which may indicate orbital cellulitis.

Same-day review. Pain that is escalating after day two rather than settling; increasing redness of the lid; discharge from the wound; a wound edge separating; the eye not closing fully during sleep, particularly with a gritty, painful or watering eye on waking; a lower lid that has started to pull away from the eye.

Next available appointment, wherever you are. Persistent dryness beyond a few weeks, ongoing swelling, a lump in a scar, asymmetry between the two sides that is not settling by six to eight weeks, a crease height you are unhappy with, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. Eyelid surgery changes your face in a way you see every morning, and being unsettled by that is a real and legitimate thing to raise.

Note also that ASAPS advises patients in Australia and New Zealand are counselled not to fly for six to eight weeks after surgery. Overseas surgery necessarily compresses that, and your fitness to fly should be a clinical assessment made a few days beforehand — not a booking made months ago.

The question to answer before you book anything

Not "where is it cheaper." Ask instead: does MBS item 45617 apply to me?

Get assessed in Australia, against the current descriptor, by a doctor who will document your findings and take the photographs. If it applies and you have private cover, have the operation at home and keep your surgeon in your city. If it does not apply, then compare honestly — the whole cost of travelling, not the surgical fee — and be clear-eyed that on a procedure this size, the travel may cost more than it saves.

My credentials, if you want to check them: MD from Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University; Thai Board of General Surgery; Thai Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University; Medical Licence No. 17689; member of ISAPS since 2008; international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons; and an advanced blepharoplasty symposium in St Petersburg in 2022. ISAPS and ASPS are membership societies — they certify and accredit no one, and any clinic that tells you otherwise is misrepresenting a credential. Verify mine, and verify everybody else's.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Tummy Tuck Cost in Thailand: What Australians Actually Pay in AUD

By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: [SET DATE ON PUBLISH]

If you have searched this, you probably typed three letters at the end that most people do not: aud. You did that because you have already read four Thai clinic pages that quoted a number in baht with no conversion basis, or a number in Australian dollars with no date, and you want to know what will actually leave your account.

That is a reasonable thing to want and a strange thing to have to fight for. So this article gives you our real prices in both currencies, the published figures from named Australian specialist plastic surgeons alongside them, and the Medicare position — which is more generous than most people expect and much narrower than most people hope.

I will also tell you which patients I decline to operate on, because a price list without that is a menu, not medical information.

Why almost nobody publishes an AUD figure

Two reasons, one boring and one not.

The boring one: our costs are in baht. Theatre time, implants, nursing, the hospital's overheads and my fee are all denominated in Thai baht, so the baht price is the contracted price and the Australian dollar figure is a conversion that moves daily. Any clinic quoting a fixed AUD price is either absorbing the currency risk quietly or repricing when you are not looking.

The less boring one: a stable published AUD price is easy to compare, and comparison is not in every operator's interest.

Our position is that the published baht figure is what you pay, and the AUD figures below are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD and confirmed at booking. Do not apply a single conversion formula to the whole list yourself; the implied rate across our schedule is not identical line to line.

What an abdominoplasty costs here, in baht and Australian dollars

Procedure	THB	AUD (indicative)
Abdominoplasty	฿160,000	A$7,000
Extended abdominoplasty	฿190,000	A$8,300
Circumferential body lift	฿340,000	A$14,800
VASER liposuction, first area	฿90,000	A$4,000
VASER with Renuvion, first area	฿135,000	A$5,900

Every one of those figures includes airport transfer, a pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital, monitoring in ICU on the first night, a serviced apartment, medications to take home, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage, and coordinator support. Intrarat Hospital is ISO 9001:2015 certified.

If you are asking about a mini abdominoplasty specifically, [CONFIRM: current mini abdominoplasty price from /price] — it does not appear on our published schedule and I will not guess at it.

None of these figures include airfares, your support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up at home. Those are real and they are substantial, and I have itemised all eleven of them separately.

Mini, full and extended: why the price moves

The price differences are not arbitrary tiers. They track how much of the abdominal wall is being operated on and for how long you are anaesthetised.

• A mini abdominoplasty addresses skin and fat below the umbilicus only. The umbilicus is not moved. It suits a narrow group: good skin tone above the navel, no meaningful rectus diastasis — the separation of the vertical abdominal muscles — and laxity confined to the lower abdomen. Most people who want one do not qualify for one.
• A full abdominoplasty raises the skin and fat flap to the costal margin, repairs the diastasis with a plication suture line from the xiphoid to the pubis, removes the redundant skin, and transposes the umbilicus through a new opening. Longer operation, larger dissection, more drains.
• An extended abdominoplasty carries the resection around the flanks. It exists for patients whose laxity does not stop at the hip. Longer scar, longer table time.
• A circumferential body lift goes all the way around, and is a fundamentally different undertaking — usually post-massive-weight-loss, usually with position changes on the table, and with a complication profile to match.

The more tissue is undermined, the higher the risk of seroma (fluid collection), wound-edge separation and fat necrosis. You are paying more for the extended operation because it is a bigger operation, and it is a bigger operation because it carries more risk. Those two facts are the same fact.

What Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish

I want you comparing against real Australian numbers rather than a straw man, so here are figures published by named FRACS surgeons and Australian price aggregators:

Source	Mini	Full / standard	Extended, fleur-de-lis or circumferential
Dr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive, cosmetic)	from A$23,200	from A$31,300	from A$35,000
Dr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive, Medicare-eligible)	from A$15,200	from A$21,800	from A$24,700
Dr Jeremy Hunt, Sydney	from A$7,000	from A$12,000	from A$15,000
Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydney	—	from A$16,900 with top private cover; from A$26,900 without	—
Plastic Surgery Hub (national aggregate)	A$8,000–16,000	A$12,000–20,000	within A$12,000–24,000

Dr Turner also lists a consultation fee of A$450, and two consultations are required before surgery. Dr Hunt's figures are quoted as starting points and his page puts the Sydney average at "A$12,000 to over A$20,000."

Notice the spread. Australian abdominoplasty is not one price; it is a range of roughly A$12,000 to A$35,000 depending on the operation, the surgeon, the city and whether a Medicare item applies. Comparing our A$7,000 / ฿160,000 against the top of that range flatters us. Comparing it against Dr Hunt's from-A$12,000 is fairer, and even then you must add the eleven non-surgical line items before the comparison means anything.

The Medicare position: MBS item 30175

This is the part I would most like Australian readers to take seriously, because for a subset of you the right answer is to have this operation at home.

MBS item 30175 covers "radical abdominoplasty, with repair of rectus diastasis, excision of skin and subcutaneous tissue, and transposition of umbilicus." Its criteria are strict and cumulative — you must satisfy all of them:

• The abdominal wall defect must be a consequence of pregnancy.
• Diastasis of at least 3cm, confirmed by diagnostic imaging.
• Either moderate-to-severe pain or discomfort at the diastasis site during functional use, or low back pain or urinary symptoms likely attributable to the rectus diastasis — documented in your records.
• Failed non-surgical conservative treatment, including physiotherapy.
• Not pregnant in the last 12 months.
• Applicable once per lifetime.

The schedule fee is A$1,161.05, with a 75% benefit of A$870.80. That rebate is not the point. The point is that item eligibility is what unlocks private health insurance cover for the hospital and theatre component, which is why Dr Turner's Medicare-eligible column sits roughly A$8,000 to A$9,500 below his cosmetic column for the same operation.

If you have a documented post-pregnancy diastasis of 3cm or more with functional symptoms and failed physiotherapy, go and be assessed in Australia first. With an item number and good private cover, your out-of-pocket at home may land close to — or below — the true all-in cost of coming here, and you will have your surgeon in the same city for the next twelve months. Medicare does not cover overseas treatment, and Australia has no reciprocal health agreement with Thailand, so travelling forfeits that entirely.

What the price does not buy

An abdominoplasty is a major operation with a real complication profile, and cost has nothing to do with whether these happen to you.

Seroma is the commonest — a collection of fluid in the dead space under the flap, sometimes needing repeated aspiration. Haematoma can require a return to theatre. Infection, wound-edge separation and fat necrosis all occur, and are more likely if you smoke, if you are diabetic, or if the resection is extensive. Skin necrosis at the flap edge or around the umbilicus is uncommon but disfiguring when it happens. Sensation above the scar is altered in essentially everyone and does not fully return in many. The scar is permanent, hip to hip, and will be red and raised for months. Dog ears at the lateral ends sometimes need a second small procedure.

And venous thromboembolism — clot in the leg veins that can travel to the lungs — is the complication that kills abdominoplasty patients. It is why we monitor in ICU on the first night, why we mobilise you early, and why the flight home is a clinical decision rather than a booking.

Who I decline to operate on

Current smokers who will not stop. I ask for a minimum of four weeks off nicotine entirely, including vapes and patches, because nicotine constricts the small vessels that keep the flap edge alive, and a necrotic abdominoplasty flap is a catastrophe I cannot undo in one trip.

Patients whose weight is still moving significantly. If you are mid-way through weight loss, or have had bariatric surgery within the last year, the result will not hold. Wait.

Patients with poorly controlled diabetes, uninvestigated cardiac symptoms, or a personal history of unexplained clotting who have not been worked up. And patients who cannot describe what they want in terms of their own body — only in terms of somebody else's.

I would rather lose a booking than do an operation I do not believe in. That is a slower way to run a practice and it is the only version of it I am willing to run.

The revision loading, and why it exists

If your abdominoplasty was performed elsewhere and you are coming to me to correct it, the price is the base price plus 30%. That is not opportunism. Revision abdominoplasty means operating through scarred, poorly vascularised tissue with distorted anatomy and often a deficient skin envelope. It takes longer, it carries higher risk, and the range of achievable results is narrower. I will tell you before you book what I think is realistically achievable, and sometimes that answer is "less than you are hoping for."

When to seek care

Emergency — nearest emergency department immediately, in any country, without waiting to contact us. Sudden breathlessness, chest pain, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf: these suggest venous thromboembolism and can occur days to weeks post-operatively, including in flight and after you get home to Australia. Tell the cabin crew if you are in the air. Also emergency: soaking bleeding through dressings, a rapidly expanding tense swelling of the abdomen, fever above 38.5°C with rigors, or skin over the abdomen turning dusky, grey or black.

Same-day review — clinic in Bangkok, or GP or emergency department in Australia. Pain that is escalating after day three instead of settling; any separation of the wound edges; purulent or foul-smelling discharge; redness spreading outward from the incision; a fluid collection that is visibly growing or making the abdomen feel tight; drain output that suddenly increases or turns bloody; inability to pass urine.

Next available appointment. A firm lump in the flap that is not resolving, a dog ear, persistent numbness that has plateaued, a raised or itchy scar, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. That last one is common enough that it belongs on this list, and it is worth saying out loud rather than sitting with.

How to compare two quotes honestly

Put both operations in the same units. Take the Australian quote, confirm whether an MBS item applies and what your fund will actually pay, and write down the out-of-pocket. Take the Bangkok quote, add airfares for two, accommodation and food beyond the package, specialised medical travel insurance, lost income, a week of extended-stay contingency and twelve months of scar management. Then compare those two totals — not the surgical fees.

If the gap is still large, that is a real finding. If the gap has closed to a couple of thousand dollars, then you are no longer making a financial decision, and you should choose on the surgeon, the follow-up and the honesty of what you have been told.

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Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Does Medicare or Your Health Fund Cover Complications From Overseas Surgery?

By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: [SET DATE ON PUBLISH]

You have probably been told two different things, both with complete confidence. One is that Medicare will not touch you if you have surgery overseas. The other is that it does not matter, because complications are rare and the hospital handles everything anyway.

The first is an overstatement. The second is a sales line. The accurate answer splits into three questions people tend to run together: what happens to the money you spend in Thailand, what happens if you need care in Australia afterwards, and what your health fund and travel insurer will actually do.

This page separates them. Where the honest answer is "generally" or "unlikely" rather than "never," we say so, because getting this wrong in either direction costs people money they did not budget for.

Does Medicare cover treatment you receive overseas?

No. Medicare does not cover medical treatment received outside Australia. That is not a cosmetic surgery rule or a medical tourism rule — it is how Medicare works. The Medicare Benefits Schedule pays benefits for services provided in Australia, and a consultation, an operation or a dressing change performed in Bangkok attracts no rebate of any kind.

Victoria's Better Health Channel states it in the way most people first meet it: "Medicare Australia is unlikely to cover overseas medical treatment, and private health insurance may not cover it either."

So every baht you spend in Thailand — surgeon, anaesthetist, hospital, implants, garments, post-operative reviews, and any unplanned return to theatre — is money you will not see again.

Why the reciprocal agreement question matters, and why Thailand is not on the list

Australia has reciprocal health care agreements with a small number of countries. The Better Health Channel notes there are agreements with "11 countries, and these are mostly for emergency treatment only."

Thailand is not one of them. There is no arrangement under which the Australian government contributes to the cost of your care in a Thai hospital, public or private. If you are admitted in Bangkok, the bill is yours or your insurer's, and it is payable in Thailand.

It is also worth knowing what these agreements do where they exist: they typically cover care that becomes medically necessary while you are travelling, not planned elective procedures you flew there to have. Even if Thailand were on the list, it would not fund an elective cosmetic operation.

What Medicare does still cover when you get home

This is the part stated far too broadly, and it matters, because the fear of being "blacklisted" keeps people from seeking care they are entitled to.

There is no Medicare exclusion keyed to where a previous operation happened. Medicare does not ask where your surgery was performed before deciding whether to pay for a consultation today. Specifically:

• A consultation with your GP in Australia attracts its normal Medicare rebate, whatever prompted it — including a wound review, a swab, a pathology request, or a referral.
• Genuine complications are treated as medical care. An infection is an infection, a haematoma is a haematoma, and a pulmonary embolism is a medical emergency. They are managed on clinical need.
• If you are Medicare-eligible and present to a public hospital emergency department, you are treated as a public patient on clinical need. Nobody triages you by the country your operation was performed in.

What Medicare will not do is fund the revision. A rebate attaches to a listed item performed for a listed clinical indication. Treating your infection is medical care. Redoing your rhinoplasty because you dislike the shape is a cosmetic procedure, and cosmetic procedures attract no Medicare benefit wherever they are performed.

The line, in practice, is between treating a medical problem and improving an aesthetic outcome. Emergency and acute care sits firmly on the first side. Revision surgery usually sits on the second.

Which cosmetic-adjacent procedures have Medicare item numbers, and on what criteria

Two procedures often described as cosmetic do have Medicare item numbers when strict clinical criteria are met — and both are worth knowing about before you spend money abroad, because you may be eligible at home for something you assumed you were not.

Upper eyelid reduction — MBS item 45617. The descriptor covers upper eyelid reduction where the reduction is for a history of demonstrated visual impairment, intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid, herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos, facial nerve palsy, post-traumatic scarring, or restoration of symmetry of the opposite upper eyelid in respect of one of those conditions — and where "photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for this service is documented in the patient notes." In practice that means clear photographs showing eyelid skin prolapsing over the lashes in relaxed straight-ahead gaze and obstructing the visual field. The schedule fee at the time of writing is $281.40, with a 75% benefit of $211.05 and an 85% benefit of $239.20.

Post-pregnancy abdominoplasty — MBS item 30175. Introduced on 1 July 2022, this covers "radical abdominoplasty, with repair of rectus diastasis, excision of skin and subcutaneous tissue, and transposition of umbilicus" where the abdominal wall defect is a consequence of pregnancy. All of the following must be met: a documented separation of the rectus abdominis muscles of at least 3cm, confirmed on diagnostic imaging before the procedure; moderate-severity pain or discomfort at the site of the diastasis during functional activities, and/or lower back pain or urinary symptoms; and failure to respond to non-surgical conservative management including physiotherapy. The schedule fee at the time of writing is $1,161.05, with a 75% benefit of $870.80.

Two cautions. First, schedule fees and criteria change — check the current MBS or ask your GP rather than relying on a figure on any clinic's website, including ours. Second, and more importantly: these item numbers apply to services performed in Australia. Meeting the clinical criteria does not make an overseas operation rebatable. If you meet the criteria for 30175, the sensible next step is a conversation with an Australian surgeon, not a flight.

Does private health insurance cover surgery performed overseas?

Generally, no — and we will not put it more strongly, because policies differ and blanket statements get people into trouble.

Australian private health insurance is built around hospital treatment provided in Australia. Most hospital policies do not extend to procedures performed overseas, and purely cosmetic procedures are excluded regardless of where they happen. Some funds offer specific overseas products; none of that is something to assume applies to you.

The only reliable way to know is to ask your fund, in writing, naming the procedure and the country, and keep the answer. A verbal assurance from a call centre is not a policy term, and a facilitator's summary of your policy is not your policy.

Will your fund cover follow-up or revision at home?

This is the question people should be asking and usually are not, and the answer is genuinely uncertain in advance.

Where you are admitted for an acute complication — sepsis, evacuation of a haematoma, wound debridement, treatment of a pulmonary embolism — you are generally receiving hospital treatment for a medical condition, which is what hospital cover exists for. Whether your fund pays depends on your level of cover, the clinical categories on your policy, your waiting periods, and whether the admission is coded as treatment of a complication or as a cosmetic revision.

Where you are seeking a revision to improve the result, you are asking a fund to pay for cosmetic surgery, and it generally will not.

The practical risk is the grey zone between, and the practical protection is documentation: a clear operation report, a clear GP referral, and clinical notes describing the problem in medical terms. Patients who arrive home with nothing in writing have a much harder time than patients who arrive with the file.

What travel insurance does and does not do

Standard travel insurance generally excludes medical tourism. Smartraveller states it plainly: "Basic travel insurance policies rarely cover medical tourism." It also gives the number that should focus your attention: "If you have complications they can't treat overseas, you may need medical evacuation back to Australia. This can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."

If you buy a specialised policy, read what it actually covers: post-operative care, complications, and medical evacuation. Ask specifically whether it covers complications of the elective procedure itself, because many policies that appear to cover medical tourism cover only unrelated illness and accident while travelling.

The table: what is covered, what is not, and what depends

Situation	Medicare	Private health fund	Travel insurance
Your elective surgery in Thailand	No rebate	Generally not covered	Generally excluded unless you hold a specialised medical tourism policy
Post-operative reviews and dressings in Thailand	No rebate	Generally not covered	Depends entirely on the policy wording
Emergency admission in a Thai hospital for a complication	No rebate. No reciprocal agreement with Thailand	Generally not covered	Only if the policy covers complications of the procedure — many do not
Medical evacuation to Australia	No	No	Only under a policy that explicitly includes it
GP consultation in Australia after you return	Normal rebate applies, whatever prompted the visit	Not applicable	Not applicable
Public hospital emergency department in Australia	Treated as a public patient on clinical need	Not applicable	Not applicable
Private hospital admission in Australia for an acute complication	Medicare benefits apply to eligible items as usual	Depends on level of cover, clinical categories, waiting periods and coding	Not applicable
Revision surgery to improve the aesthetic result	No — cosmetic procedures attract no benefit	Generally not covered	Not applicable
Functional upper blepharoplasty in Australia meeting the criteria	MBS item 45617, strict criteria, photographic evidence required	May contribute where criteria are met	Not applicable
Post-pregnancy abdominoplasty in Australia meeting the criteria	MBS item 30175, strict criteria including ≥3cm diastasis on imaging and failed physiotherapy	May contribute where criteria are met	Not applicable

What this actually costs if it goes wrong

The published Australian evidence is thinner and more specific than the headlines suggest, and we would rather give you the real numbers than a frightening adjective.

An audit at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital found that of 331 breast implant removal cases, 8 — 2.4% — involved devices inserted overseas. The total cost to that department exceeded AU$110,000, about 4% of the hospital's spending on breast device explantations. The authors concluded that complications from overseas implant procedures cost "a small percentage of the hospital budget for breast procedures", while noting that with rising cosmetic tourism "this figure could increase in the following years." A 2026 paper in the ANZ Journal of Surgery examines the impact of overseas cosmetic tourism on the Australian public hospital system directly.

Now scale that to one person, which is the scale you care about. Eight patients, seven emergency procedures, two needing multiple operations, median length of stay over eight days and one as long as 28. That is what a complication looks like from the inside: not a bill, but a fortnight of your life, unpaid leave, someone else collecting your children, and an infectious diseases consult.

Here is the candid part. If your budget works only if nothing goes wrong, you do not have a budget — you have a hope. The cost that breaks people is almost never the operation. It is the second flight, the unpaid leave, the private anaesthetist for a revision, or three weeks of intravenous antibiotics. Before booking, decide what you would do if you needed AU$15,000 and four weeks off at short notice. If there is no answer, the right decision may be to have the surgery in Australia, where a complication is a Medicare and health fund problem rather than a personal one. That is a legitimate reason to stay home, and we would rather say it than have you find out later.

When to seek care

Cover questions are worth sorting out in advance. Symptoms are not worth waiting on.

Emergency, immediately, by ambulance if you cannot walk — in a Bangkok hotel, at the airport, or at home: chest pain, breathlessness, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf. That is possible deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, the complication most likely to kill you. Do not phone the clinic first. Also emergency: bleeding soaking through dressings, a breast or abdomen swelling rapidly and becoming tight and painful, fever above 38.5°C with shaking chills, spreading redness with dusky, blistered or numb skin, or sudden confusion or collapse.

Same-day review, not tomorrow: a wound edge turning grey or black, discharge that has become cloudy, thick or foul-smelling, pain escalating rather than settling after day three, one-sided calf ache, or a temperature creeping up over 24 hours.

In Australia, go to a public hospital emergency department for anything in the first group, or see your GP the same day for anything in the second. Your Medicare card works normally, nobody will refuse you care, and Australian emergency clinicians manage complications of overseas surgery routinely. Take your operation report, implant details, medication list and surgeon's contact details, and send the notes back to your surgeon afterwards.

What we would confirm in writing before booking

Ask your health fund, in writing, naming the procedure and the country, whether it will contribute to anything performed overseas and to any admission for a complication afterwards. Ask your travel insurer, in writing, whether the policy covers complications of the elective procedure itself and medical evacuation, and read the exclusions rather than the brochure. Ask your GP whether your concern might meet the criteria for an item number in Australia — particularly for eyelid surgery or abdominoplasty after pregnancy, where the criteria are strict but real. And ask your surgeon for the operation report, implant stickers and discharge summary before you fly home: the Australian clinician who sees you in week three will need all three, and asking from 7,000 kilometres away is much harder than asking at the front desk.

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Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Blepharoplasty Cost: Australia vs Thailand, and When Medicare Applies

By Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689
Last reviewed: AUGUEST 2026

You looked in the mirror and the upper lids have started to sit on your lashes. Perhaps you have begun lifting your brows without meaning to, or noticed that you are tilting your chin up to read a road sign. Perhaps it is simply that you look tired in photographs when you are not tired.

Then you asked what it costs in Australia, and the answers came back somewhere between three thousand and eighteen thousand dollars depending on which page you landed on, with no explanation of the spread.

I am a plastic surgeon in Bangkok, so you would expect this article to end with an argument for coming here. For a good number of readers it will not. Eyelid surgery is the procedure where the case for travelling is weakest, and where the Medicare position at home is strongest. I would rather set that out clearly than have you spend money badly.

What eyelid surgery costs in Australia

Here is what named Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish.

SourceUpper blepharoplastyLower blepharoplastyUpper and lower combinedDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive)around A$6,000 in rooms under local; from A$8,300 in hospital under generalA$9,000–14,000approximately A$12,000–18,000Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydneyfrom A$4,500 incl. GSTfrom A$8,500 incl. GST—Dr Mark Kohout, SydneyA$3,000–8,000 depending on lids treated; A$4,500–11,500 once all fees are counted——

Dr Kohout's practice usefully breaks that down: surgeon's fees A$2,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees A$750–3,000, hospital or clinic fees A$1,000–2,500. Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two before surgery.

The spread is not surgeons disagreeing about the value of their work. It is mostly a question of where the operation happens. An upper blepharoplasty performed in a consulting suite under local anaesthetic has no hospital fee and no anaesthetist's fee. The same operation under general anaesthetic in a licensed private hospital acquires both. That single decision moves the price by thousands.

When Medicare does pay: MBS item 45617, exactly

This is the part of the article I most want you to read, because a proportion of the people searching "blepharoplasty cost Australia" are entitled to a rebate at home and do not know it.

MBS item 45617 covers upper eyelid reduction. Its current descriptor requires that:

• the reduction is for any of the following — (i) history of a demonstrated visual impairment; (ii) intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid; (iii) herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos; (iv) facial nerve palsy; (v) post-traumatic scarring; (vi) the restoration of symmetry of the contralateral upper eyelid in respect of one of the conditions in (i) to (v); and

• photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for the service is documented in the patient notes.

The schedule fee is A$281.40, with a 75% benefit of A$211.05 and an 85% benefit of A$239.20. The Extended Medicare Safety Net cap is A$225.15.

Two things follow from those numbers. First, the rebate itself is small — it will not meaningfully change the cost of your operation on its own. Second, and far more importantly, item eligibility is what allows private health insurance to contribute to hospital and theatre fees. That is where the real money is, and it is why the same operation costs so differently depending on whether an item number applies.

What the 2022 amendment changed, and why the internet has it wrong

You will read on many Australian pages that Medicare requires formal visual field testing confirmed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. That was true. It is no longer the descriptor.

The item was amended with effect from 1 November 2022. The mandatory visual field testing requirement was removed and replaced with a requirement that the practitioner document "a history of a demonstrated visual impairment" in the patient's notes. The photographic or diagnostic imaging requirement was retained.

I am flagging this precisely because so much of what is published about medical tourism is out of date, copied between sites, and never re-checked. Take the current descriptor to your Australian surgeon and let them assess you against it. If your lids obstruct your visual axis, if you are compensating with your brow, if you have chronic intertriginous inflammation in the lid fold — you may be eligible, and eligibility is decided in Australia, not here.

The case for having this done in Australia

If item 45617 applies to you and you hold private hospital cover at the relevant tier with waiting periods served, my honest view is that you should have this operation at home. Not because Bangkok surgery is unsafe, but because the arithmetic and the aftercare both favour Australia in this specific case.

Medicare does not cover overseas medical treatment. Australia has no reciprocal health care agreement with Thailand. Your private fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas, and may not cover follow-up at home either. Travelling means writing off an entitlement you have already paid premiums for.

There is a second reason, and it is clinical. Eyelid surgery is millimetre surgery on a structure that has to close over your cornea every few seconds for the rest of your life. The reviews that matter — at one week, six weeks, three months, a year — are easier to attend when your surgeon is in your city. Most patients never need more than reassurance at those visits. The ones who do need something more need it close by.

What we charge, in baht and Australian dollars

ProcedureTHBAUD (indicative)Double eyelid surgery (local anaesthetic)฿32,000A$1,400Upper and lower eyelid surgery (general anaesthetic)฿110,000A$4,800

AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one.

Both include airport transfer, pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified; it is not JCI-accredited), post-operative monitoring, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. Neither includes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is base price plus 30%.

Double eyelid surgery is a different operation

The A$1,400 / ฿32,000 line is not a cheaper version of an upper blepharoplasty. It is a different procedure with a different aim.

Double eyelid surgery creates or defines a supratarsal crease in an eyelid that does not have one, or has an inconsistent or partial one. It is performed by incisional or suture techniques and the design decisions — crease height, shape, whether the epicanthal fold is addressed — are aesthetic and cultural rather than functional. Getting it right requires a very specific conversation about what you want your eye to look like, and getting it wrong is highly visible.

An upper blepharoplasty for dermatochalasis removes redundant skin, and sometimes a conservative amount of orbital fat, from a lid that already has a crease. Different problem, different operation, different price.

If you are not sure which one you are asking about, that is the first thing to establish, before anyone quotes you anything.

The all-in comparison, once travel is counted

This is where eyelid surgery differs from body contouring, and where I will argue against my own commercial interest.

The gap between an Australian upper blepharoplasty in rooms — around A$6,000 at Dr Turner's practice, from A$4,500 at Dr Sandercoe's — and our double eyelid price of A$1,400 looks like a saving of several thousand dollars. Now add: two return airfares if you bring someone, accommodation and food beyond the package, a specialised medical travel insurance policy that actually covers elective surgery abroad, and lost income at the Australian full-time average of A$2,083.70 per week.

For a low-cost, short-recovery procedure, those additions can consume most or all of the apparent saving. The travel cost is roughly fixed regardless of what operation you have. On a A$7,000 abdominoplasty gap it is a modest fraction. On a A$4,000 eyelid gap it is most of it.

The economics only start to work if you are combining eyelid surgery with something substantial in the same trip — a face and neck lift, body contouring — so the travel is amortised across a larger procedure. If eyelid surgery is the only reason you would get on the plane, I would think very carefully, and I would get assessed against MBS 45617 first.

The complications, including the one that can cost you your sight

Every eyelid operation carries these, at any price, in any country.

Dry eye and grittiness are common early and usually settle, but can be persistent, particularly if you already have dry eye, have had laser refractive surgery, or take medications that reduce tear production. Lagophthalmos — incomplete closure of the lids — can follow over-resection of skin and can threaten the cornea. In lower lid surgery, ectropion and lower lid retraction, where the lid pulls away from or down off the globe, are the characteristic complications and can require further surgery to correct. Scleral show, a rounded or hollowed eye, and asymmetry between the two sides all occur. Unmasking or worsening of an unrecognised ptosis — a drooping upper lid from a levator problem rather than excess skin — is a specific trap, and is why the lid position is assessed separately from the skin before surgery. Chemosis, prolonged swelling, visible scarring, and altered sensation are all possible.

And the one that must never be softened: retrobulbar haematoma. Bleeding behind the eye raises orbital pressure and can cause permanent loss of vision. It is rare. It is a surgical emergency measured in hours, not days. Its symptoms are in the section below, and if you have them you go to hospital immediately.

Who I decline to operate on

Patients with significant untreated dry eye, until an ophthalmologist has assessed and managed it. Patients on anticoagulants that have not been reviewed and planned around with the prescribing doctor. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension, because bleeding risk in the orbit is not a hypothetical. Patients whose real problem is brow descent rather than lid skin, in whom removing lid skin will make things worse. And patients who bring in a photograph of someone else's eyes and want those eyes, because I cannot give them to you and I would rather say so before surgery than after.

When to seek care

Emergency — go to a hospital emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or in Australia, and do not wait for anyone to reply to a message. Sudden severe pain behind or around the eye, a hard or bulging eye, rapidly increasing swelling and bruising of the lid, any decrease in vision, double vision, or seeing flashes or a curtain across your vision. These may indicate retrobulbar haematoma or another sight-threatening problem, and time matters. Also emergency: fever above 38.5°C with a red, hot, swollen, painful lid and difficulty moving the eye, which may indicate orbital cellulitis.

Same-day review. Pain that is escalating after day two rather than settling; increasing redness of the lid; discharge from the wound; a wound edge separating; the eye not closing fully during sleep, particularly with a gritty, painful or watering eye on waking; a lower lid that has started to pull away from the eye.

Next available appointment, wherever you are. Persistent dryness beyond a few weeks, ongoing swelling, a lump in a scar, asymmetry between the two sides that is not settling by six to eight weeks, a crease height you are unhappy with, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. Eyelid surgery changes your face in a way you see every morning, and being unsettled by that is a real and legitimate thing to raise.

Note also that ASAPS advises patients in Australia and New Zealand are counselled not to fly for six to eight weeks after surgery. Overseas surgery necessarily compresses that, and your fitness to fly should be a clinical assessment made a few days beforehand — not a booking made months ago.

The question to answer before you book anything

Not "where is it cheaper." Ask instead: does MBS item 45617 apply to me?

Get assessed in Australia, against the current descriptor, by a doctor who will document your findings and take the photographs. If it applies and you have private cover, have the operation at home and keep your surgeon in your city. If it does not apply, then compare honestly — the whole cost of travelling, not the surgical fee — and be clear-eyed that on a procedure this size, the travel may cost more than it saves.

My credentials, if you want to check them: MD from Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University; Thai Board of General Surgery; Thai Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University; Medical Licence No. 17689; member of ISAPS since 2008; international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons; and an advanced blepharoplasty symposium in St Petersburg in 2022. ISAPS and ASPS are membership societies — they certify and accredit no one, and any clinic that tells you otherwise is misrepresenting a credential. Verify mine, and verify everybody else's.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.