How Much Does Varicose Vein Treatment Cost?

What is a varicose vein? 

Varicose veins are swollen and twisted blood vessels. They happen when blood pools in your veins rather than flowing back up to your heart, causing pressure to build up in your veins. This stretches out your veins, making their walls weak, and causing them to enlarge and bulge out. 

You’ll usually find varicose veins on legs and feet, since standing and walking around puts pressure on the veins in your lower body. 

Along with the bulging vein, you might find that you experience symptoms like: 

• leg pain, including aching, throbbing, burning, itching, heaviness, or cramping
• swollen ankles
• darker skin over ankles
• an itchy rash known as varicose eczema. 

You might notice that these symptoms get worse towards the end of the day or if you’ve been standing for a while. 

You might be more likely to develop varicose veins as you get older, as well as during pregnancy and menopause. Other risk factors include: 

• if anyone in your family has had them
• being overweight or obese
• standing, sitting, or being immobile for long periods of time
• not being physically active
• previously having a blood clot or leg injury
• being a smoker. 

If left on their own, varicose veins can develop into a range of medical issues: 

• You may find the skin in the area starts to break down and become an ulcer.
• The vein may bleed more easily if the affected area is injured.
• It’s possible for blood clots to develop and move deeper into your leg (deep vein thrombosis) or even travel up into your lungs (pulmonary embolism). 

Thankfully, varicose veins can be treated. This typically involves removing or closing off the affected vein. For instance, in varicose vein surgery, the vein is cut, tied off, and removed (depending on the technique, this is called ligation and stripping, or phlebectomy). Other treatments are listed in the table below. The treatment that’s right for you can depend on where your varicose veins are and how severe they are.

Sclerotherapy

Irritant chemicals (sclerosants) are injected into the vein, making it collapse and seal up.

Laser ablation

A catheter with a laser fibre inside it goes into the vein. Then, it’s slowly removed while the laser pulses, making the vein close.

Radiofrequency ablation

Similar to laser ablation, this method uses radiofrequency energy to close the vein.

Medical glue

A special medical glue seals up the affected vein.

How much does it cost to remove varicose veins?

Are there other out-of-pocket costs for varicose vein removal? 

If you choose to be a private patient for varicose vein surgery, you might have additional out-of-pocket costs.  

For instance, you could have an excess: an amount you need to pay before your insurer starts covering any bills. Similarly, you could need to pay a co-payment for every day you’re in hospital. For varicose vein surgery, it can be a day or two before you’re discharged, so you could have a couple of co-payments to make.  

If you’re curious about these extra out-of-pocket costs, you could always take a peek at your policy documents to see what’s listed or speak with your insurer. 

These out-of-pocket expenses could balance out when you consider the benefits of being a private patient, like picking your doctor and even potentially getting your own room to recover in. 

What about costs after they’re removed? 

Of course, there can be follow-up costs after any operation or treatment. In the case of varicose veins, you might need to get your hands on some compression stockings as well as taking some pain-relief medication. These might be over-the-counter costs or, in the case of pain-relief meds, covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 

It’s likely you’ll also need to have a further appointment or two with your treating doctor. This is an opportunity to check everything is healing as it should and ask any questions you have. Medicare may cover some or all of the cost of this appointment, depending on if it’s bulk billed or not. 

How long will I have to wait for varicose vein removal? 

If you need surgery to remove your varicose veins, it could be worthwhile to know that in 2022–23, the median public hospital waiting time for this treatment was 216 days. It’s possible your wait could be even longer, given that 28% of public patients waited a year for their surgery, and 10% waited 513 days or more.³Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Elective surgery waiting times 2022–23 data tables

With health insurance, you might be able to skip this longer wait and be seen sooner. However, it bears keeping in mind that you’ll need to have served your waiting period. If your varicose veins are a pre-existing condition (i.e. you had them before you got private health insurance or picked a higher policy tier), your waiting period will be 12 months. For everyone else, it’ll just be two months. Of course, if you’ve already served your waiting period, you can book that surgery now. 

Outside of hospital surgeries, your waiting times for treatment could vary depending on the doctor you’re seeing and their availability. 

What level of health insurance do I need to cover varicose vein removal? 

For varicose vein treatments, health insurance only covers going to hospital for surgery. You’ll also need at least a silver tier hospital policy (although insurers do have the option to offer this cover at lower tiers). However, getting this policy could mean you have more control over your health journey, plus have cover for a range of other hospital needs, like investigating heart conditions and receiving bone marrow transplants. 

Where can I find and compare health insurance? 

Trying to compare health insurance policies can feel like trying to untangle a patch of spider-web veins. Luckily, iSelect is here to make it simple. You can compare a range of health insurance policies from different providers online in a matter of minutes. Alternatively, you can speak with one of our health comparison experts on 1800 784 772.