Medicare is the public health care system in Australia. Once you are enrolled in Medicare, you will have to pay the Medicare levy to Australian government which is 2% of your taxable income. It is like a medical insurance but is mandatory to the citizens and permanent residents who are living in Australia.
This should not be something new to anyone who is living in Australia. However, many people still do not know that they will be automatically enrolled in the Medicare even during the process of applying for the permanent residency in Australia (see this link from AU government website).
A friend of Ben did not pay for Medicare levy before he became the permanent resident in Australia (because he didn’t know he had to). A year later he received a call from the Australian government asking him to pay off the debt (Medicare levy) which is for the period when he was applying for the PR in Australia.
It was a surprise to him because he wasn’t aware that he was covered by the Australian government’s Medicare all the while, but the worst thing is that he has bought his own private insurance plan at that time. It means that he has paid about AU$2000 that he should not have paid! (since you will not be compensated twice if something bad happens)
Ben and I have got a private health insurance from a private insurance company in Australia because we need it to apply for the work visa in Australia. Our work visa was approved in March and Ben moved to Melbourne in May, and then we started the PR application in the same month.
So it means that Ben was automatically enrolled in Medicare in May, but we still retain our private insurance. Ben has checked the insurance coverage of both – the private insurance plan has covered exactly the same thing as Medicare.
And then, Ben cancelled our private insurance immediately. But since we only realised this in July, Ben has already paid 2 months’ private insurance (about AU$400) that he should not have paid. Luckily he discovered early so he didn’t have to pay too much.
If you want to be covered more than Medicare, then it is a good idea to purchase the private insurance. But if your private insurance’s coverage is exactly the same as Medicare, then it is a waste of money. It normally takes about a year for the PR application to be approved (now it is 13-16 months), imagine how much money would have gone wasted!
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