beatnik Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Hi, I'm trying to sort out long term health insurance for myself and my wife. We're on a 457 visa and arranged insurance with IMAN before we got here so we could get the visa. Now we are here I'm trying to get my head around the complexities of Aussie health care & I have got time to work out which plan will be right for us long-term. We've enrolled in medicare. I just wanted to check whether we could claim the private health insurance rebate while being on a 457 visa? Any advice appreciated. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossmoyne Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 Hi Beatnik - While you are on a 457 visa you are classed as a resident for tax purposes, so I should think that you would qualify for the health insurance rebate too. Not sure though..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanbo24 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Hi we are on a 457 visa and only get reciprocal healthcare from Medicare, is this what you got? We have a daughter with an eye issue so need to keep private health going for her but otherwise we're not bothering although we did have to have it to get the visa granted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surflen22 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 The rebate doesn't apply to Overseas Visitor Cover (which is what you'd have under a 457 if you have private medical cover). Any extras are but the rebate amount will be very small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockDr Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 The medicare surcharge for high earners does apply to 457 visa holders with reciprocal medicare though, so if you fall in that bracket it can be worth getting cover. Some of the insurance providers have specific products for people in this category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatnik Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 Hi, thanks for the advice everyone. So if I understand it correctly I have to get overseas visitors cover while I am on a 457 visa and cannot claim the rebate for this :mad: The overseas visitors cover seems to be more expensive than standard cover as well.. But I may cancel my existing IMAN policy as this just covers everything that I can get with medicare anyway (and I understand that being enrolled with Medicare is sufficient to meet condition 8501 for 457 Visa holders). But I want to get cover for extras such as dental care, chiro etc - can I get this as a stand alone policy from insurers? And would this extras policy have to be specific for a 457 visa holder? Also, as mentioned, I would have to consider whether we would have to pay the medical surcharge levy, and how much this may be, and whether getting a standard policy would work out more cost effective. RockDR - you mentioned some insurance companies have specific policies for this reason - do you know of any in particular? Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scimum Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Hi there I looked into this last year. We are on 457 visas. My husband earns enough to have to pay the medicare levy surcharge. BUT when I tried to get family health insurance, all insurers said I couldn't get it because we were on 457s and only had the yellow (reciprocal) medicare card. The only insurance I could find was one that covered the same things as the reciprocal agreement, and would cost us about $5k pa. My husband doesn't earn enough to make this worthwhile getting just to avoid the surcharge! We do have extras cover with HIF. They didn't seem to have any problem with us having a 457 visa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockDr Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 http://www.nib.com.au/home/newtonib/whynib/Pages/TemporaryResidents.aspx bottom left section of this page has appropriate cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockDr Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 also from the bupa FAQs: [h=2]Can I claim the Federal Government Rebate on private health insurance on any part of my cover?[/h]If you have a reciprocal Medicare card and take out Extras cover or combined Hospital and Extras cover, you will be able to claim the Federal Government Rebate on your Extras cover. If you do not have a reciprocal Medicare card you are not eligible to claim the rebate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatnik Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Thanks very much for the info, RockDr, very useful info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostdf3 Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 May be seen as a daft question but does the private medical aid (you pay for) differ from state to state? What is the best medical aid insurance in WA to go for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Danton Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Hi Late in the day but I thought I should flag up for others some of the pitfalls with private health insurance for 457 overseas workers from the UK. We've been caught out by this issue and ended up considerably out of pocket because of it. It is a complicated and we have found that staff at our private health insurer Australian Unity were giving us totally misleading advice on the issue. Our provider eventually helped us out and here is my understanding of the issue based on what we were told: - Overseas workers from the UK on 457 visas can be eligible for both the rebate and exemption from the Medicare Levi Surcharge (MLS) but the insurance must be a registered hospital product - we found that our Australian Unity 457 Overseas Visitors Cover is not a registered product, and this is probably the case for similar cover provided by other companies. You need to be registered for Medicare too. - Due to the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia, we eventually discovered that technically we are eligible for other Australian Unity policies, such as their Smart Start Cover, which they offer to residents. As it is a registered hospital product, it is eligible for the rebate and MLS exemption (if applicable). These policies are significantly cheaper than 457 cover BUT come with significant risks in terms of Ts&Cs because of being an overseas worker with limited medicare benefits from the RHAC. In terms of financial costs/benefits, as an example, we were eventually quoted around $2,300 for Australian Unity's Smart Start Cover for my partner and I for one year, so we would have received a tax rebate as our MLS was more than this. As we didn't know these issues when we arrived (despite telling AU we wanted insurance because of the MLS) we ended up paying around $4,200 for the 457 cover and the MLS on top of that! Obviously taking out insurance is not just about the tax benefits, it's also about having decent medical cover should anything happen and making a judgement on the risk involved - either way comes with pros and cons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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