A little bit of my journey

Are you eligible for Medicare?  If so, it will be free in the public system, but you will probably have to wait many months for reconstruction treatment, and will have no choice in your surgeon.  An actual cancer removal operation is dealt with much faster, of course.

Do you have private health insurance?  I have top cover with BUPA and went private, as I wanted immediate treatment, and went to a private hospital of my choice with an excellent breast surgeon recommended by a friend.  I had an excellent plastic surgeon whom the breast surgeon recommended.  He took over the second half of the operation once she ha removed the cancerous breast.  He carried out the immediate reconstruction of that breast and the reduction of the other one.

I had a single mastectomy, an immediate reconstruction with a silicon implant, and a reduction of my F-G sized remaining breast down to a C to match the implant.  The operation took five and a half hours in total.

My breast surgeon only charged the scheduled fee which was covered by Medicare. My plastic surgeon charged me $5000 for the combined operation (both breasts being worked on), and I got back about $2000 from Medicare and BUPA combined.  I don't know what it would cost to have just one breast reconstructed.  I was also out of pocket about $400 for the anaesthetist.

The benefit of going private is that you can have the work done as soon as your surgeon (whom you get to choose) can fit you in.  You are not waiting at the end of a long list (very, very long in some cases) to get the call that they will assess you for breast reconstruction.  I also had a private room the whole time which was wonderful.

The down side of going private is that paradoxically, you can be hit with a lot of additional costs.

i went private and am very glad that I did.  Both of my chosen surgeons are excellent, and when I developed infections (not theirs or the hospital's fault), I was admitted immediately back into hospital for as long as was needed, which was twelve days, luckily in a private room.  Given the choice again, I would still go private.