Alex Hall

Hi everyone,

Just a warning based on something I found out and was lucky to sort out in time... (apologies for any inaccuracies)

As you may know.. If you are over 30 and live in Australia then the govt want you to take private medical/health insurance. Therefore for every year you are over 30, that you haven't started private medical cover you will get an additional 2% loading on your premium.

i.e. if you wait until you are 40 until you take private medical cover then you will get a 10x2 = 20% loading on your premiums for the rest of your life!!!

However, all is not bad news.. If you are an immigrant you have a 1 year grace period in which to sort out preivate medical insurance to prevent you from receiving the loading. Where you need to be careful though is that one year is from the time you enrol into medicare.

Now some of you (like me) may have enrolled into medicare where you validated your visa, you then returned to the UK... If you then don't return to Australia in time you can get caught out.

For example, I validated my visa in late Aug/Sept 05.. I enrolled into medicare and got a Tax File number while I was here on the 30th August 05 and returned to the UK. I then didn't emigrate here until the 15th August 2006.... I therefore had 15 days in which to sort out private medical cover otherwise I would have a 6% loading forever onwards (I am 33).

Hopefully my ramblings make sense..

And for those of you who do not think you need Private Medical Cover as you are on Medicare.. You may be right, but be sure of your decision as Medicare is not the NHS (and vice versa)


You will need to pop into medicare to get them to write a letter of eligibility which will state what date you joined medicare (and you have 1 year from that date to sort out private medical cover if you do not want the loading)


hth

Alex

somedogsdo

Thanks for that Alex,
I have been very lost in all the info on this site about this subject. but now i get it.

Cheers
Paula

breezeboylan

Thanks for the info Alex, we will bear that in mind when we go over.
Tracie

ianandhelena

the logical thing to do (or not do!) is, if you come to Oz to validate and then return home for a period before coming out permanently-don't register with medicare until you come for good-you give yourself more time to sort out your health fund that way.

Nicstids

That doesn't matter. We didn't register with Medicare on our validation trip - they still work on the date you first entered Australia after you got your visa - that's why we nearly got caught out by this - I thought we'd be OK as we didn't register with Medicare until March 06. They still used the date when we first entered the country of July 05 to calculate when the year's grace would run from

Wol

It does depend who you ask about the exact point the twelve months starts - you get ifferent answers each time!

I eventually had a call back from an assistant minister no less, who confirmed after a lot of investigation it's counted from your first date of entry after receiving a permanent visa. The Medicare thing is a red herring.

Best get in straight away - leave it a few months and if it slips your mind the 12 months will pass in a flash! In our own case it would have meant a two-thirds increase in the premiums.........

Alex Hall

I guess I was lucky then as the date they have used for me was the date that I signed up to Medicare which gave me 6 days extra grace period.

*shrug*

Seems another one of those things where there seem to be a few different answers. I've not checked to see whether there is anything written on the medicare or other government website. I assume it is written down somewhere!

Warning still applies though about getting Private Medical Cover within a year (of some unknown date!) so be careful to not get caught out

:-)

Alex

alkristensen

There is a spellchecker on this site,

flip

Thanks for this reminder. I've been told you can get a very basic cover which stops the penalties accruing. We've had pr since November, guess we'd better get organised.

alkristensen

try www.iselect.com.au

its like a u-switch in the uk

you type in what you want and it tells you cheapest policy

al

Jon North

Only from their short list of commission paying healthcare companies.

Rgds

alkristensen

i understand that, this gives you a guide tho to try and beat.

can yo sugggest some good cheap ones then please, after all this is an information site. People want to know things if you are in the know, which you obviously are

cheapest i found for a couple Hospital cover only was $1026 for man 35 woman 39. for annual payment in advance
al

alkristensen

thanks for this,

so does the loading fee stick when you take out the policy or do you get 2% more each year added after you have taken out the policy.

I know that it goes up to 70% maximum, but can anyone post a link as to verify this info about it sticking at that percentage(over 31 yrs of age) FOR LIFE please or at least tell me where you fot the info, as some people say per year and some people say it sticks.

al

Nicstids

Not sure but here's a useful link which says that Medicare will be starting to notify people (eg migrants) when the loading is about to be applied to them

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wc...phi-fact27.htm

Also you will be able to apply to have the loading removed once you have had private health cover continuously for 10 years

alkristensen

cheers for that, this clears it all up

this is how it reads:

If a person has never held hospital cover, and they are aged over 30 when they first buy hospital cover, the health fund must charge a 2 per cent loading on top of their premium for every year they have not held hospital cover.

so this looks like they charge up until you take it out,but not after as in 2% more each year. Does everyone get the same message here as me>??

i thought they may do a no claims bonus on policies. do they?

and does anyone know any cheap lowest possible price policy to stop the loading , or at least a company name so i can browse(reccomndations really)

thanks alot

alk