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Honey, it depends on whether you're going public or private. When I had my tests done for the international search I received a bill for a few hundred dollars from memory. I don't think I could claim anything back from Medicare or my PHI. The test was performed at a public hospital lab but because I was a private patient at another facility, I got charged. I remember thinking it was unfair at the time. I don't know if there would have been any costs if they had found a donor. I'm pretty sure full allogeneic transplants are only done in public hospitals so I assume the costs would be absorbed by the Federal Government.
After 6 months it was decided that I didn't need a transplant but they hadn't found a match in that time. The international search wasn't started until many months after I had been started on the Australian search and no match found.
On the other hand Jewels aka Julianne/Jules (from Victoria) was tested and a donor(s) found within weeks. I think it's luck of the draw how fast they find a compatible donor for you. Kind of like....how long is a piece of string? I do remember my haematologist saying that he was going to talk to the transplant co ordinator about increasing the urgency of my search when my blasts started increasing, so there must be some kind of priority system as well.
Sorry this is rambling all over the place.....I'm feeling a bit vague today.
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