Not sure - the mystery continues. We arrived 30/12, applied for Medicare 6/1, letter we used to avoid age loading stated 6/1.

crap! How would they handle a 3 year 'break' from Aus? We were in Aus 10 months, left for 3 years and are about to return... we were hoping they look at the actual time 'in the country as resident'. Stamps in passport can proof that...

How would who handle what? And what bit of which post is rubbish?

This link is from a government website. It states 12 months from being eligible for Medicare to avoid loading.

http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/heal...ealthcover.htm

To be eligible for medicare you must be reside in Australia as well as being PR (see http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...-residents.jsp).

Therefore you can't officially register with Medicare on a validation trip (as you are visiting not residing in Australia) as you aren't eligible and as you aren't eligible your loading calculation also can't take affect.

To the poster asking about being out of the country the first link mentions an allowance for being out of the country for up to 3 years

Eh Non of it is rubbish. Who = medicare or insurance company. If the date on your medicare registration counts, we are in trouble because we got medicare nearly 4 years ago and are well passed the 12 mo mark. But if they (insurance company) look at the time of residency, we're okay. We only were in Aus for 10 months...

Ay, going over the 3 year mark too... not good

Crap! as in 'Oh shite, Houston we may have a problem' not Crap! as in 'Rubbish'

that's it!

To prove we weren't liable for the loading the insurance company required us to get a statement from Medicare