Health cover requirments for 457 Visa

leon76

I've been asked to provide Evidence of adequate health insurance (private health insurance or reciprocal health ) on my 457 Visa application.

I have just switched to VHI Global €1200 per year which covers me. My wifes need to have the same but Quinn don't have a global policy.

I could put her on my policy at an additional cost of €1200.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or advice.

Many thanks

Leon.

karl bracken

You do not need private health cover for either of ye, you are covered to the level required for the 457 by the reciprocal health care agreement between Oz and Ireland.
This question has been asked a lot, myself and many people on this forum have had their visa passed on the grounds of the reciprocal health care agreement.
Depending on occupation you may have to provide a chest x-ray but thats it and if you have one in the last 12 months that is still valid

leon76

karl bracken wrote: »

You do not need private health cover for either of ye, you are covered to the level required for the 457 by the reciprocal health care agreement between Oz and Ireland.
This question has been asked a lot, myself and many people on this forum have had their visa passed on the grounds of the reciprocal health care agreement.
Depending on occupation you may have to provide a chest x-ray but thats it and if you have one in the last 12 months that is still valid

just filling out the form section 38 primary person : Do you hold health insurance for your selve and your accompanying family members? No - you will need to hold health insurance before your application can be granted.

yes - Attach evidence of health insurance . This may include a copy of helath insurance policy or letter from employer.

If I attached both our current policies this should ok right?

karl bracken

As i already said you DO NOT need it so attach what you like for that question.

I understand filling out these forms is stressful but trust me on this, its what i and many posters on here did you are covered.

Just write for the question covered by the reciprocal agreement or spend the money on more insurance and find out later you wasted it, my mate is a registered migration agent who is a lot cheaper than the big firms PM me if you would feel better talking to him and he will do the forms for you

No6

I am in for a 457 for a local uathority job and the girl that is dealing with it for let me know that I am covered by the recprocial agreement. We have quinn insurance here but thats not necesscary for the visa.

leon76

Thats fine. My employer in Australia has a dedicated office for visa applications so I'm going to enter what you said re: the agreement . Many thanks for this information. You've saved me a lot of money.

Regards

No6

You'll probably want to get health insurance over there anyways, i know we will.

mandrake04

My advice is go for a doctors checkup and then the dentist and get your teeth checked & done before you go, if you don't have Medical Insurance then you will pay big money for dental work.

No6

What about Medical insurance is it expensive over there!!

mandrake04

It's more expensive if you are not entitled to Medicare

No6

As far as I can figure out we are covered under the recprocial agreement for basic Medical public health cover, its not medicare but similar?

Mellor

It will cover emergency treatment. Basically, A&E visits, but not elective surgery, or medical treatment. Not that similar to medicare.

My GF is entitled to medicare, so she is also covered for GP visits, eye tests etc on top of emergency visits.

No6

what about just general visits to the doctor, I am bringing a child who gets sick from time to time!!!

kdevitt

No6 wrote: »

what about just general visits to the doctor, I am bringing a child who gets sick from time to time!!!

You'll end up forking out cash for it. Its $55 for a childs visit at our doctors, and $75 for an adult, and $100 for a long visit.

As an example of how costs can rack up - my wife brought my son for a quick checkup a while back - all was fine, tooks 5 mins, so $55. The doctor said my wife looked a bit pale (she was shattered tired as the baby didn't sleep well at that stage) and she should probably have a blood check. Asked her to wait outside and she'd get a nurse to do the test. She ended up waiting an hour for the test, and the doctor said she had to be charged for a long visit - so $155 now incurred. Goes to pay at the counter and the blood tests were over $900. She rang me in tears asking to use my credit card - over $1k spent on one visit, baby was fine, wife was fine.

mandrake04

No6 wrote: »

what about just general visits to the doctor, I am bringing a child who gets sick from time to time!!!

You have to cough up full cost for that, Medicare bulkbilled would cover that but on the reciprocal you are going to have to pay that yourself.

Mellor

No6 wrote: »

what about just general visits to the doctor, I am bringing a child who gets sick from time to time!!!

Not covered under recip. agreement.

If you were from northern ireland, you'd be covered as its technically its in the UK and their recip. agreement entitles them to medicare.

Batgurl

kdevitt wrote: »

You'll end up forking out cash for it. Its $55 for a childs visit at our doctors, and $75 for an adult, and $100 for a long visit.

As an example of how costs can rack up - my wife brought my son for a quick checkup a while back - all was fine, tooks 5 mins, so $55. The doctor said my wife looked a bit pale (she was shattered tired as the baby didn't sleep well at that stage) and she should probably have a blood check. Asked her to wait outside and she'd get a nurse to do the test. She ended up waiting an hour for the test, and the doctor said she had to be charged for a long visit - so $155 now incurred. Goes to pay at the counter and the blood tests were over $900. She rang me in tears asking to use my credit card - over $1k spent on one visit, baby was fine, wife was fine.

On that note, does anyone else find that doctors over here are more like Sales people??? Seriously trying to push test after test on you? I went in for a PAP smear (sorry squeamish lads) got the test, grand....paid my $70. All the time though the doc was pushing me to get the HPV vaccine which is $900 a pop and you need it 3 times!!!

Anyway, normally at home the doctor would ring you when the results come in and either say "yup your clear" or "can you please make an appointment to come back into discuss your results. So when I got the call to come back I was sh*tting myself only to be told "ok your all clear...that'll be $70 please"

So I thought screw that so if I'm paying $70 I'm getting my moneys worth and asked for my pill to be renewed and an inhaler refill. So before she prescribed it she wanted to run tests for endometritis and bronchitis ..."just in case"!!!

Last night then I open my post to find a further $50 bill which the lab want money for for performing the test?!?!?!?

I get that doctors over here can make money off the medicare system but I think they are seriously milking it and 457'ers like us are the ones who suffer.

FYI: I told her I didn't have medicare but that didn't stop her.

kdevitt

Yeah they totally milk it - they just do everything in their power to make as much money from patients as possible - given 99% of the patients are covered by medicare, its essentially free money for them and the patients don't care.

The doctors are also pretty oblivious to the costs associated because generally it makes no difference - my wife only found out she owed a grand as she went to leave - all the pricing was held by the girl at reception.

Feelgood

Out of curiosity, if a doctor sends you for an Ultrasound in a hospital. Is that covered under recip?

$900 for blood tests is a bit mental :eek:
I would have though $100 - $150 at the most. Is that across the board?

Mellor

Feelgood wrote: »

Out of curiosity, if a doctor sends you for an Ultrasound in a hospital. Is that covered under recip?

I would imagine its not covered as its not usually emergency treatment.

ArseBurger

in-patient care is covered. Some out-patient is, most isn't.

joeyeire

The company that are employing me and 350 other employee's in the uk and Ireland are saying that i need health insurance now for my visa as
I cannot sign up for medicare until I am physically in Australia
and i need health insurance in the interim ie get it out for a month then cancel it

joeyeire

I am from a country with a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia. Do I also need insurance?

If you are from a country with a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia, you may be eligible to access Medicare. For further information you should refer to the Medicare Australia website.
See: Medicare Australia – Visitors to Australia

Being enrolled with Medicare under reciprocal health care arrangements is sufficient to meet the health insurance requirement at visa grant and to comply with visa condition 8501.

You can only enrol with Medicare if you are in Australia. If you have enrolled with Medicare you should provide evidence that you have been issued with a Medicare card as part of your application.

If you are overseas, you must arrange adequate insurance for your initial period in Australia and provide evidence of this insurance as part of your application. You may be eligible to then enrol with Medicare once you are in Australia. Being enrolled with Medicare is sufficient to comply with visa condition 8501.

kdevitt

You are not eligible for medicare if you are from Ireland - you do not need additional health insurance either. A copy of your Irish passport is sufficient evidence to cover the health insurance clause of your 457 visa.

beartooth

From my Agent dealing with my 457 application:

DIAC require that all temporary residence visa holders have adequate health care cover for the duration of their visit, and they require proof of this cover as part of the visa application. If you are a citizen of a country with whom Australia has a reciprocal health arrangement, you are eligible to apply for Medicare (similar to the NHS) membership once you arrive in Australia, and this meets the health care requirement for DIAC. However, as you can’t apply for enrolment on Medicare prior to your arrival, you will need to have private insurance in place to cover you until you are able to get to a Medicare office to enrol. There are a number of suppliers that are able to provide this short term cover, but the most comprehensive and best value for money are IMAN (www.austhealth.com.au) and Medibank (www.medibank.com.au – make sure you select Visitors and then Working Visitors). Once you apply, they will issue a letter stating that you have the required cover. Once you land and apply for Medicare (which is normally approved on the spot), then you can cancel your private cover if you wish.

kdevitt

beartooth wrote: »

From my Agent dealing with my 457 application:

If you are a citizen of a country with whom Australia has a reciprocal health arrangement, you are eligible to apply for Medicare (similar to the NHS) membership once you arrive in Australia, and this meets the health care requirement for DIAC.

Irish residents are NOT eligible for Medicare. This has been covered loads of times on here, and your agent is wrong.

As I mentioned, a copy of an Irish passport satisfies the health insurance requirements, you don't need a separate policy.

beartooth

I know and thought she was wrong.

This is however what the agents are asking for as part of the application.

Mellor

joeyeire wrote: »

The company that are employing me and 350 other employee's in the uk and Ireland are saying that i need health insurance now for my visa as
I cannot sign up for medicare until I am physically in Australia
and i need health insurance in the interim ie get it out for a month then cancel it

That is what happens if you are from the UK, inc NI when on a British passport.

kdevitt wrote: »

Irish residents are NOT eligible for Medicare. This has been covered loads of times on here, and your agent is wrong.

As I mentioned, a copy of an Irish passport satisfies the health insurance requirements, you don't need a separate policy.

What the agent is describing is how it works for most reciprocal agreement countries. So it might be correct depending on the poster. But assuming, it looks like the agent isn't aware of the different reciprocal agreements for Ireland compared to other countries.