How does Health Insurance and Medicare work in Australia?

The system around health insurance in Australia is different to most European countries. 
In Australia you can get Medicare, which is a government service, that covers a part of your treatment.


For example a normal doctors consul would cost about 70 AUD. Medicare covers 30 AUD of that amount and so you need to cover the other half yourself.





Medicare usually covers:

• free or subsidised treatment by health professionals such as doctors, specialists, optometrists and in specific circumstances dentists and other allied health practitioners 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)
• some health care services in certain countries 

When you decide to move to Australia it's very important to make sure you are still insured the right way either in your home country or in Australia. 

My insurance situation upon arrival in Australia

When I moved to Australia I arrived on a Working Holiday visa. Halfway through the year I needed to either sign up a new year with my Health Insurance in The Netherlands, or I had to sign up for an insurance in Australia. My Dutch insurer recommended me to cancel my Dutch insurance and get an insurance in Australia. And so I cancelled my Dutch insurance and went to get Medicare. Unfortunately there is a agreement between The Netherlands and Australia and you can only get Medicare on a Working Holiday Visa with your valid European Insurance card. 

As I had just cancelled my insurance my European insurance card was not valid anymore. And because I couldn't be insured for a year in The Netherland, because there was no point for me to do that if I wasn't able to use it, I had to get a very expensive 'Overseas Visitors' Health insurance from HBF. 

Don't cancel your European health insurance until you get granted a bridging visa, which entitles you to get Medicare. The mistake I made was cancelling my insurance not realising that I would have been entitled to Medicare if I would still have my European insurance.

If in the end you still need a Overseas visitors insurance because of a gap in the system (I'm sure there are more than the one I came across) 

Here is a list of some insurers that offer Overseas Visitors Health Cover: 

• Bupa: Varies in prices depending on your cover 
• HBF: Cheapest cover is $24 but doesn't cover much. This is why most people would be tended to get the most expensive policy which is $55.75 at the time of writing this post.  
• Medibank: Seems like the most expensive policy which is $54.40 per week does cover a lot of your expenses. 
• NIB: Has 5 different types of cover, so it's probably easier to customise your policy.  

I hope this post was helpful and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me, I would love to hear from you.