I am having discussions with my hubby wether we are entitled to medicare when we come to Adelaide. I have read somewhere we are he says we are NOT entitled to it PLEASE help


NIKKI :dance:

Hi lar & nikki

I think you will find that SIR visa holders are not entitled to medicare.

It says on the south australian immigration website that temporary visa holders are not normally entitled to medicare.

go to www.immigration.sa.gov.au

go to regional skilled and then click on SIR option - will give you info there.

lorraine

No Nikki,

We are not, as it is only a temporary visa. However, you must register with Medicare on arrival so that you can get emergency treatment under the reciprocal agreement between the UK and Australia.

So, SIR visa holders have to take out private medical insurance. You may find that a lot of Australians have this anyway to a greater or lesser extent, so nothing unusual!

Annette
:dance:

When we looked at the cost of private insurance through medibank private, it is around AU$5000 annually for a family. I just wonder, if you are generally not an ill family if it is worth it as surely $5000 is a lot of doctors visits and treatments?

Hi,
Yes you do get limited medicare under SIR. You have to go to the medicare office with the formand passports and you do get issued with a medicare number.
Under the reciprocal health care agreement you will be entitled to limited subsidised health services for immediately necessary treatment while in Australia
more information available from www.hic.gov.au
Private health cover is quite expensive so its up to you, as we are normally well havent been to docs in years, we havent bothered. Any accidents and you will be treated at A&E so no worries
Liz

Hi Rachel

That is a scary amount of dollars for private medical insurance! Was that the cheapest quote you receieved?

This is not something I have looked into properly myself yet and although I imagined it wouldn't be cheap, did not expect it to be that expensive. :68:

Best I start making some enquires to get an idea of how much it would cost us.

Thanks for info.

Sara.

Hi Sara

That was just in a booklet from Medibank private, bit of a shock so I didn't look at anything else. We thought we would get private insurance, but when you look at it, and the waiting times to qualify certain things, and the fact that the majority of the stuff we would go to the doctors for would be classed as immediate necessary treatment, and therefore qualify for medicare, then I don't think we would bother. We also asked about SOME costs of medical stuff and realised it would take quite a bit to add up to the insurance premium, so now think we wouldn't bother. I guess it is just up to the individual and how you weigh things up.

Remeber as a temp resident you also have to pay additional school fees, I have read a thread from someone on this site and I think they mentioned it is around $3000 per child per annum - but I stand to be corrected here.

rachel

Not in state schools in SA, but in some other states, yes. The higher fees might apply in private schools though, which may charge you international students fees. This also applies to university studies.

Annette
:dance: