obogk

Hi
We, my husband and I along with our little 3 yr old are here in Australia on a 457 and nee dto look into private health cover. ANyone on a 457 and done some research as to who is the best given that we are not as yet permanant residents ?
ANy help on this would be appreciated, been surfing the net and the types of cover and levels is a lot to take in and understand
Thanks

MartinH

If you are on a 457 (temporary employer sponsored visa) then I am pretty sure your employer is obliged under the terms of the visa to cover your medical insurance costs - so its worthwhile checking with them before you sign up for anything.

AlliF

We are on a 457 and part of our agreement was that we would have to take out our own private health insurance.
The employer's responsibility is only to;
"pay all medical or hospital expenses for an employee (and accompanying family member/s) for treatment in a public hospital (other than expenses that are met by health insurance or reciprocal health care arrangements)."

If you are from the UK emergency treatment will normally be covered by medicare under the Reciprocal health care agremeent - anything over and above that you may have to arrange private health cover for. Some companies will pay the premiums for you but others won't. We wanted to come so deperately we didnt think it worth the aggro trying to push for them to pay for it.

There are not many of the Health insurance companies that do cover temporary residents - we are currently with Medibank on a visitors cover. (medibank.com.au)
Be very careful as we were stiffed the first year - they put us on the wrong cover (permanent resident cover- slightly cheaper) because we had a medicare card. I told them repeatedly I thought we were on the wong one but they insisted that was not the case. Then when I had to have some treatment (non-emergency) it transpired that we were on the wrong one after all and as they couldn't claim anything back from medicare for it we were ineligible for a refund. $3000 dollars out of our pocket.:curse:

The costs vary widely depending on your family circumstances.

SunnyMD

Not with Queensland Health by any chance ?? We are and they insisted as part of our 457 visa that we pay for our own private health cover !

We use HBA - they do an expensive but good cover (overseas corporate visitors was the old name, think they've changed it now). I researched and there wasn't too much difference between the various offerings, but I liked this one !

AlliF

[QUOTE=SunnyMD;7390953]Not with Queensland Health by any chance ?? We are and they insisted as part of our 457 visa that we pay for our own private health cover !

Nope. OH is employed by Halcrow engineering. We didn't want to push the issue either as he got a substantial payrise coming over here and as we were also hoping for them to sponsor us for PR we figured it was worth paying the $350 a month to not appear to be a pain in the proverbial and greedy! Good news is they have agreed to do just that and we are in the process of going through our application now.Just had news that our CO has approved the employer nomination so just have to wait and see if they approve our application

RenShen

Hello, we have just been through this process. I searched through all of the providers and took a lot of advice from people here.

We have signed up with medibank with their visitors cover. As said in an earlier post, we are not eligible to have other cover as we aren't eligible for the federal rebate. You will find however that a lot of the companies that you speak to don't really know much about people on a 457 and just want to sell you a standard policy.

Once we decided on Medibank my husband just walked into one of their offices and bought the cover. Took about 10 mins. Its their visitors cover and we bought the top level which cost around $4800.00 for the year.

As already said, the employer is liable to cover your medical costs and my husbands employer is going to give him the money for the cover. Its in their interests to do this. If they were not going to pay I would not get cover and just forward any medical bills to them for payment. Its a condition of them sponsoring people that they cover their medical expenses.

Hope this helps,

Ren

AlliF

Only problem with this Ren is that they are only liable for costs OTHER than those covered by Medical insurance - if they insist you buy your own insurance as part of your agreement to come here then there is no comeback on them. It is excellent if they will cover the cost of the premiums but as i said previously they dont have to.

spectralcluster

Similar thing happened to me. On a 457 I joined Peoplecare who informed that all was fine as long as I had a Medicare card. As UK has reciprocal healthcare agreement I got a Medicare Card albeit a 'Visitors Medicare Card'. 4 months later I contacted them regarding another issue and found out I wasn't fully covered. They refunded me all premiums but I was effectively at risk for 4 months.

jayr

I was on a 457 for almost six years with the Reciprocal Medicare cover. I dod not take out private medical insurance. You don't have to, you can choose to "take the risk" and simply pay the full private fees out of your own pocket as and when you (choose) to incur them.

I suspect I may have spent at best $2000 on private uninsured costs, much less than the insurance premiums would have been.

Medicare covers a lot, and with those with the Reciprocal agreement (such as Poms) that also covers a lot.

Safin

IMAN (part of AHM) do a cover specially for 457 holders.

We had to have highest level ins as part of contract of employment and it had to be with one of a few approved companies!!!!

family of 5 (2+3) costs $192 a fortnight for the highest levvel cover which has no gap payments due at all!!!! Been very good so far.

Seachanger

I came on a 495 visa so was not entitled to anything other than reciprocal cover under Medicare. I purchased visitors cover from Medibank which was simple to put in place and seemed the most comprehenisve. It was about $420 a month for a family of 5.

Don't forget that once you've applied for PR you can apply for full Medicare and as well as a new card, Medicare will issue a letter stating the date from which you are eligible for full Medicare. If you give this letter to your health insurer, you can then move on to much cheaper cover.

The Medicare website (link: http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...residents.jsp) states:

People who reside in Australia - excluding Norfolk Island - are eligible if they:

hold

• Australian citizenship
• have been issued with a permanent visa
• hold New Zealand citizenship
• have applied for a permanent visa (excludes an application for a parent visa)—other requirements apply. Contact Medicare for further information.

I continued with Medibank on one of the highest hospital & extras cover for about $220 a month (although it is about to increase with effect from April) and so far I've been happy with the service.

ianhutch1

I didnt know that you could do that once you have applied for PR, so Medibank cover you as a Permanent Resident even though you are still on a 457 waiting for PR?

slippery30

Yes, thats true. You simply have to take the acknowledgement email from DIAC of receipt of PR application and ur passports to medicare office. They will then issue u a one year interim medicare care card. Also consider that ur tax status changes once u apply for PR from 457 i.e ur no longer eligible for LAFHA, and u have to pay 1.5% medicare levy

ianhutch1

I dont get LAFHA anyway, how does the Medicare levy work then do I pay that even if I have Medibank?

jayr

Everyone has to pay the medicare levy of 1.5%, whether you are 457, PR or citizen and whether or not you have private medical insurance.

The Medicare Levy SURCHARGE of 1% of gross income is payable above certain incomes (around $150k for a family I think). THAT can be avoided by having private medical insurance.