Insurance and medicare

[LampsandGooders]

Apologies if this has been asked before..

 

My partner and I are arriving in Australia next January and aren't sure about two things:

The only travel insurance companies are saying we can have is a single cover policy that only lasts 24hours after we arrive in Oz. Has anybody found anything different to cover you until medicare is set up?

 

Also, what is the deal with medicare? How do you set it up and how does it work?

 

Sorry to ask these silly questions but it is one of things about Oz I am entirely unsure of.

 

Any help is much appreciated.

Natalie

[Delaneym]

I am on the last stage of my 457 application and had to send travel insurance to my co yetserday. I have insurance through my bank account Lloyds tsb and this lasts for up to 62 days so i will be covered till medicare sorted. my co accepted this as being ok and I havent looked into the other end and medicare just yet ( i should I am finger crossing going in about 8 weeks!)

[LKC]

I vaguely remember that we used Go Walkabout which covered us for 21 days after arrival. Their website is here http://www.go-walkabout.co.uk/.

 

For Medicare, just take your passport and visa grant email or letter with you to the Medicare office and register. Most shopping centres have them. You will be given a ticket with your number on and then a card comes through the post. If you are on a temporary visa, you have to renew every year, otherwise every five years I think.

[lebourvellec]

From your previous posts you say you have 175 PR - therefore you do not need to worry about medical insurance for your cover once you arrive in Australia. But it would be worth getting some sort of travel insurance if your bags are lost/flights delayed etc.

 

You register with medicare once you arrive, you will get a temp card until the really one comes through.

[Guest Francine]

From your previous posts you say you have 175 PR - therefore you do not need to worry about medical insurance for your cover once you arrive in Australia. But it would be worth getting some sort of travel insurance if your bags are lost/flights delayed etc.

 

You register with medicare once you arrive, you will get a temp card until the really one comes through.

 

 

Can I just clarify that if you are a permanent resident and you have just arrived in the country and have no medical insurance set up, you are covered? We are a family of 5 emigrating in October on a PR visa and I wasn't sure if I needed some kind of travel insurance to cover us until we sort out some health insurance.

 

What exactly does medicare cover you for? Can any body tell me how much health insurance would cost for a family of 5 (children aged 7, 3 and 1) and the sort of package we should be looking at?

 

Many thanks.

[Guest Francine]

Thanks for that Rachel. Has anyone else with PR status got any advice? What kind of insurance have you taken out, especially those with young kids?

 

Thanks in advance x

[Zman]

Having not used Medicare much, apart from visits to the GP and one hospital admission) might get better advice from a medical professional but here's the intro "blurb" from the Dept of Human Services web site:

 

Medicare gives you access to:

 

 

• free or subsidised treatment by health professionals such as doctors, specialists, optometrists, dentists and other allied health practitioners (in special circumstances only)
  
• free treatment and accommodation as a public (Medicare) patient in a public hospital
  
• 75 per cent of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures if you are a private patient in a public or private hospital (does not include hospital accommodation and items such as theatre fees and medicines).
  

 

The URL to check out more is here --> http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/medicare

 

If you opt to go private, obviously, you will need private health insurance (BUPA now operates here having taken over MBF) to cover this.

 

Dental is not free unless you're seriously poor. This is expensive if you have complex work done. Having said that, I've found the standard to be very good.

 

Further example, the ambulance service is not free. I had to go to hospital a few months ago (turned out to be false alarm) but ended up with ambulance bill of about $900. Luckily am insured so all covered. Similarly, the tests I needed to have whilst in hospital and afterwards (as long as authorised by a suitably qualified doctor) were all covered by Medicare (in this instance, I believe, because was an emergency). Now having been given the all clear as far as the ticker was concerned, I needed to see a specialist and to have more tests to see what the issue was. In this case, the consultation, tests and day-stay in hospital were partly covered by Medicare and partly by my health insurance but I still had a "gap" to pay out of my own pocket. Some of this was due to the fact that the specialist I saw operated out of a private hospital - although not sure if a public option was available (frankly, I didn't care, just wanted the issue diagnosed).

 

Advice: get health insurance asap - choose the cover that best suits you. Main providers are BUPA, HCF, NiB and Medibank Private. There's an ad on TV which says you can view the options from a number of providers and choose the one that suits you (www.choosi.com.au) but I don't think they cover all providers. If you're not sure what package to get, go for the basic hospital and ambulance cover as a start and then decide once you've settled in. Also enroll in Medicare asap (as previous posters have said, you can find Medicare shopfronts in most shopping centers).

 

Remember that you will pay 1.5% medicare levy on the taxable part of your income. This rises to 2.5% if you earn over a certain level and you do not have private health insurance.

[Slean Wolfhead]

Can I just clarify that if you are a permanent resident and you have just arrived in the country and have no medical insurance set up, you are covered? We are a family of 5 emigrating in October on a PR visa and I wasn't sure if I needed some kind of travel insurance to cover us until we sort out some health insurance.

 

 

When we came over we took special "one way" travel insurance from I think, Go Walkabout (.co.uk). They extended this to cover the initial 5 weeks in Australia although we were then "permanent residents" so not travelling.

You can register for Medicare immediately on arrival, as long as you have a postal address (PO Box if you have no house)....then just update the address when you're settled.