Dinky

Hi Guys,
Been in Sydney a few months now and am getting round to trying to get Private Health Insurance.
I'm coming up against big issues as I'm on a temp to permanent residency visa (De Facto). This means I get an interim Medicare card. I thought all would be fine but HCF, Medibank and MBF all rejected me as I don’t have permanent status and full Medicare cover. The best I can do is an MBF corporate overseas visitors cover which costs $1787.95 a year! This still does not help me avoid the 1% Medicare levy surcharge applied by the Australian Government. WTF!

Is there anybody else in the same situation? Any help or advice really appreciated!

Dinky

Trevglas

Hi Dinky,

I was here originally on a provisional spouse visa, and I am pretty sure I got a full medicare card relatively quickly, whilst on the provisional visa, although if memory serves me the first one they sent was an interim card.


If you are on a defacto visa, surely your partner could get private cover and just slap your name on the policy? I didnt have to supply visa details or anything with HCF, although admitedly by the time I got round to getting cover I was on a permanent visa.

I would try talking to the private health funds again.

One good reason for this is if you are over 30 you will have to pay a lifetime health cover levy, which is 2% of the hospital portion for every year you are over the age of 30. The Department of Health is currently reviewing this requirement for migrants, and are planning to waive this requirement as long as private cover is taken up within 1 year of arrival: see http://www.health.gov.au/privateheal...t.htm#migrated for details.

If a health fund refuses you cover until you get permanent residency (which may take say 1-2 years), you may be able to argue that this goes against the aims of the Commonwealth government which is to get all those resident in Australia, who can afford private health cover to do so, and also because of the LHC requirements, will cost you dearly in the future, so much so that you may not be able to afford cover!

Another argument to make with them is although you are not a permanent resident as far as DIMIA are concerned, you are definitely a resident as far as the Tax office goes, and as such you would be liable for any Medicare levies etc. You would also be able to claim the 30% tax rebate on private health cover

Sorry I couldnt be of more help

Trev

jayr

Can only symapthise - I am on a temporary visa and get the same Medicare Card - "Reciprocal Health Care - Immediately Necessary Care ONLY" and have not found a health fund which means I can evade the surcharge. After 15 months I still haven't bothered to get cover. My opinion is if you go to the doctors you generally need care immediatelty - not sure its cost us much in bills to date (family of four).

saraliz

I am surprised they won't cover you... when I was in Oz on a student visa I had to get insurance cover (through Medibank Private). Surely if they can cover people on student visas they can also cover people on temp. spouse visas? (I didn't pay anywhere near $1700!)

owieb

We had the same problem. We were on a temp 457 visa and the main players wouldn't cover us.

Some will cover you, but they charge a least twice the amount. We were quoted around $480 per month for cover with Medibank, that same cover costs $180 per month if you have permanent residency.

In the end we didn't bother getting any cover and waited till we got permanent residency. We stuck what we would have paid for cover each month into a bank account in case we had any emergencies.

Luckily we didn't need it so we spunked a whole lot of it on a slap-up night out at a nice restaurant and a top hotel!

Probably the best health care payout we'll ever get!

downunderpom

I'm on a 457 visa, and have HCF cover, after giving Oz Unity the elbow. They haven't even asked me what Medicare card I have. I did it all online. The costs have just gone up to $50 a month (or is that a fortnight? I'll have to check), for basic hospital and extras, including major dental. That's for two of us.

dotty

I dont think you can get rid of the medicare levy. Even those with private insurance still pay it, Australians included.

You might avoid paying a higher medicare levy tho, which is imposed upon those who earn over $50,000 single or $100,000 family by taking out health cover.

I thought medicare levy was 1.5% and 2.5% for high (see above) income earners. Is it still 1%

jayr

I'm pretty sure it is 1.5%, I was trying to avoid the additional 1%, though the way my salary sacrifice works I think my taxable income is only viewed as about $45k so I might not be paying it anyway.