Health insurance puzzle

[Maviisdavis0405]

Im a little confused and would love some help. My family and I are currently living in Toowoomba on 457 visas with reciprocal health care, however we are looking to take out a Health insurance policy to cover our dental etc. When I looked online I noticed that lots of sites offer 457 only heath policies. Now that we are here and are residents from a tax point of view do we have to take this policy or can we look at the taking out a normal one. The 457 oversea visitor ones seem to be a lot more expensive. I thought I would ask before I did myself out of pocket.:rolleyes::wub:

[Melstra]

There are specific policies for 457 visas only & you have to stick with them until you get PR it's to prevent huge amounts of claiming that might have happened prior to this rule coming out

[LouDYorkie]

There are specific policies for 457 visas only & you have to stick with them until you get PR it's to prevent huge amounts of claiming that might have happened prior to this rule coming out

 

Is this right? I thought the purpose of the 457 policies was that they would sufficiently cover the visa holders family as required by the visa rules. But, the OP says they have reciprocal so they should be able to get any policy that suits them shouldn't they?

[Melstra]

Is this right? I thought the purpose of the 457 policies was that they would sufficiently cover the visa holders family as required by the visa rules. But, the OP says they have reciprocal so they should be able to get any policy that suits them shouldn't they?

 

It's a requirement by the government & will cover you but still prepare for out of pocket expenses for private treatment reciprocal rights gives us access to the public system & Medicare just be aware that 457 policies are generally more expensive & once you are a PR shop around for a better price & level of cover.

[VERYSTORMY]

Sorry this is incorrect. I have had a number of policies when we were on a 457. The issue with taking one out that isn't for a 457 is that they don't give the tax benefits. Therefore I would recommend you take a specific one out for 457's. We found Bupa the best of the bunch.

[Melstra]

Hi the tax benefit is presumably meaning that you avoid the Medicare levy surcharge if you hold hospital cover. However I understand that regardless of your policy type the MLS applies at an increasing scale for example a single person earning 90k pays 1% of their earnings should they not hold cover. What I am referring to is looking into you actually get for your money in terms of the policy monthly premium as it is not always the most competitive price or level of cover on 457 specific policies & as you are definitely limited to 457 cover this is not giving you access to a number of health funds insurance policies that are available on the market so I recommend that once you are a PR to shop around and see for yourself but in the meantime check the private gov website to see the MLS tables if you are earning under 90k as a single and around $180k as a family you won't have to pay MLS so the tax comment is irrelevant. That being said if it is a higher income bracket you will pay more. There is a handy table on the private gov website that shows if you would save or not. Been here over 11 years saved a lot of money by changing policies so hopefully you do too

Sorry this is incorrect. I have had a number of policies when we were on a 457. The issue with taking one out that isn't for a 457 is that they don't give the tax benefits. Therefore I would recommend you take a specific one out for 457's. We found Bupa the best of the bunch.