Healthcare cover requirements for the 457 sponsorship visa????

Dots84

Hi. I am going to Australia on a 457 sponsorship visa and I am unsure about what health insurance I need.
Does anybody know if the reciprocal healthcare agreement between Ireland and Australia is enough to cover me for the min level required.
I have checked the medicare and immigration websites and to me it appears as if the reciprocal agreement is sufficient but as Irish people dont actually apply for a medicare card when they arrive in oz (and they say once you enroll with medicare its sufficient cover for the visa) I am confussed.
Any help would be greatly apprecieated.
Thanks a mil
Dots

kdevitt

The reciprocal covers you.

Father Damo

Ive always imagined medical insurance was to cover your repatriation home by air ambulance?

Pretty mad, I pay in Ireland and get free GP/ hospital care here. Damn freeloading immigrant foreigners that we are :pac:

Mahatma coat

its basicly a governmnet supported Scam

the rules changed last year sometime

if you are an Australian you have the choice to take health insurance, this covers most things and costs about $40 a month, or pay that in your taxes for a lesser service

We the Foreigners are Forced to take the Crappy Version, but get this, it cost $100 month

Mahatma coat

oh yeah the E111A Which I presume is the recriprocal you are talkin about only covers Emergency Medical assistance, ie they will pick you up in an ambulance and fix whatever caused you to require an ambulance, but thats it, it dosent cover GP visits or Dental or Chiro or optical etc,these things still cost you the FULL price, bear in mind that the system is geared towards MEdicare and bulk billing, so once you are outside the system you WILL be Shafted

lg123

so what do you submit with your application to prove you dont need health insurance?

Mahatma coat

thats the thing tho, from what I can see you Do, so you have to submit a form saying taht you have the correct insurance

lg123

kdevitt wrote: »

The reciprocal covers you.

are you basing this on personal experience and if so, form how long ago?

junkster12345

from what im aware you need health insurance , either that or im cancelling my $66 a month policy.

kdevitt

lg123 wrote: »

are you basing this on personal experience and if so, form how long ago?

Yes - moved here in August.

The only evidence you need is your Irish passport. My 457 was handled by a specialist immigration law firm the bank use here, so don't really have much detail on it.

Mahatma coat

OK, time to get definitive on this

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/457-health-insurance-faq-visa-holder.htm

From the Horses mouth

You NEED Insurance, Kdevitt its possible that your employer is covering you at the moment.

lg123

for anyone not bothered reading that page the most important part is you need medical cover at least equivalent to Admitted patient hospital treatment which the Irish-Australian RHC doesn't cover, it only covers outpatient treatment (for the purposes of this discussion).

next step. can anyone recommend a cheap health insurer who can meet the requirements?
junkster, that $66 plan sounds reasonable, who was that with?

kdevitt, your agent probably pushed the irish-aus RHC though, they are good at that kind of thing. if i was you i would try find out either way in case you need to go to hospital.

kdevitt

lg123 wrote: »

for anyone not bothered reading that page the most important part is you need medical cover at least equivalent to Admitted patient hospital treatment which the Irish-Australian RHC doesn't cover, it only covers outpatient treatment (for the purposes of this discussion).

next step. can anyone recommend a cheap health insurer who can meet the requirements?
junkster, that $66 plan sounds reasonable, who was that with?

kdevitt, your agent probably pushed the irish-aus RHC though, they are good at that kind of thing. if i was you i would try find out either way in case you need to go to hospital.

I've been to hospital - and was fully covered by the reciprocal (EDIT - and no ambulance required, so there goes that little FACT from above ). My wife is fully covered for all her maternity through the reciprocal for a public hospital. My company don't have any insurance policy in place for me as I don't require it.

Now feel free to apply your own interpretation and pay for insurance - but the list of adequate evidence for insurance for the dept of immigration is:

1: Certificate of coverage / cover note / health insurance policy from an acceptable provider which certifies that you (and any family members) will have the minimum level of insurance in place as stipulated by the Department of Immigration and effective upon visa grant of your arrival in Australia

2: Evidence that you have lawfully enrolled with Medicare and have been issued with a valid Medicare card

3: Copy of a valid Irish Passport

kdevitt

lg123 wrote: »

for anyone not bothered reading that page the most important part is you need medical cover at least equivalent to Admitted patient hospital treatment which the Irish-Australian RHC doesn't cover, it only covers outpatient treatment (for the purposes of this discussion).

http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/migrants/visitors/ireland-nz.jsp

Your entitlements
As a resident of the Republic of Ireland or New Zealand you are entitled to free treatment as a public in-patient or outpatient at a public hospital and access to subsidised medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme during your visit to Australia. This covers any ill health or injury needing medical treatment while in Australia. To access these benefits you should show your passport at hospitals or pharmacies. You are not entitled to Medicare benefits for non-hospital medical care and you will not be issued with a Medicare card.

lg123

thank you very much for blowing that out of the water, saved me some money.

i am nearly 100% certain the last time i checked, the RHC only covered out patient care, maybe it has changed since.

jank

kdevitt wrote: »

I've been to hospital - and was fully covered by the reciprocal (EDIT - and no ambulance required, so there goes that little FACT from above ). My wife is fully covered for all her maternity through the reciprocal for a public hospital. My company don't have any insurance policy in place for me as I don't require it.

Now feel free to apply your own interpretation and pay for insurance - but the list of adequate evidence for insurance for the dept of immigration is:

1: Certificate of coverage / cover note / health insurance policy from an acceptable provider which certifies that you (and any family members) will have the minimum level of insurance in place as stipulated by the Department of Immigration and effective upon visa grant of your arrival in Australia

2: Evidence that you have lawfully enrolled with Medicare and have been issued with a valid Medicare card

3: Copy of a valid Irish Passport

Hmmm, I always thought that 457 Visa holders had to have seperate private medical insurance. Doesnt really bother me as my company pays for it all but seems a bit of a grey area now.

Mahatma coat

Yeah, I renewed my 457 there a few months ago, and I HAD to have some form of insurance, I enquired as to why when my Last 457 didnt need any, they said that the rules had changed.

For anyone unsure I would sugest Getting the CORRECT health cover whilst your aplication is being processed anyway, the other thing they told me was that the $40 or $66 dollar packages dont cover the 457 requirements, thats $100/month

rahanpob

Hi Guys,

In a similar situation. My company is in the middle of organising my sponsered visa. To be honest when I asked them about health insurance, I don't think they were too sure either. Their initial thoughts was that since I am not from the UK that I was not covered by medicare.
I have been reading the various posts today with interest, and there has been alot of conflicting information. Do we have a definitive clear answer to the original post anyone---thanks:pac:

csm

kdevitt wrote: »

I've been to hospital - and was fully covered by the reciprocal (EDIT - and no ambulance required, so there goes that little FACT from above ). My wife is fully covered for all her maternity through the reciprocal for a public hospital. My company don't have any insurance policy in place for me as I don't require it.

Now feel free to apply your own interpretation and pay for insurance - but the list of adequate evidence for insurance for the dept of immigration is:

1: Certificate of coverage / cover note / health insurance policy from an acceptable provider which certifies that you (and any family members) will have the minimum level of insurance in place as stipulated by the Department of Immigration and effective upon visa grant of your arrival in Australia

2: Evidence that you have lawfully enrolled with Medicare and have been issued with a valid Medicare card

3: Copy of a valid Irish Passport

Can you give the link that you have copied that from? Need to inform my future employer that as an Irish citizen I don't need insurance for the 457 as they are skeptical

kdevitt

csm wrote: »

Can you give the link that you have copied that from? Need to inform my future employer that as an Irish citizen I don't need insurance for the 457 as they are skeptical

Sorry, I transcribed it from a document I was provided with.

kdevitt

rahanpob wrote: »

Their initial thoughts was that since I am not from the UK that I was not covered by medicare.

You're not covered by Medicare - you're covered by the reciprocal. Theres a link to the official site above stating you're covered for in-patient and out-patient at a public hospital.

Dots84

Thanks for all the replies to my origional post.................its is so confusing as all these replies with different answers show. Has anyone applied for a sponsored 457 visa recently and been covered by the reciprocal agreement.
My interpretation is the same as urs Kdevitt but I am only going on what i think and not personal experience as i have to yet apply for my visa.
So Confused

kdevitt

Dots84 wrote: »

Has anyone applied for a sponsored 457 visa recently and been covered by the reciprocal agreement.

My application went in in July - I doubt the requirements have changed since then.

It was handled by a company called Fragomen (http://www.fragomen.com/ourlocations/Offices.aspx?xpST=officeDetail&office=18) -

lg123

when did your application go in mahatma?
The way its appearing to me is it will depend on what your case officer makes of it.

lg123

i emailed the Melbourne center of excellence, DIAC to get a definitive answer, i got a reply from Keith saying 'If you are an Irish Citizen then your cover should meet requirements'.

that looks better but why didn't he say it does or it doesn't. either you are an Irish citizen or you aren't.

rahanpob

lg123 wrote: »

i emailed the Melbourne center of excellence, DIAC to get a definitive answer, i got a reply from Keith saying 'If you are an Irish Citizen then your cover should meet requirements'.

that looks better but why didn't he say it does or it doesn't. either you are an Irish citizen or you aren't.

I agree.
This is almost funny at this stage.
I still d'ont know which side to take on board. Look's like both arguments are correct from what I am reading.

daftdave

lg123 wrote: »

for anyone not bothered reading that page the most important part is you need medical cover at least equivalent to Admitted patient hospital treatment which the Irish-Australian RHC doesn't cover, it only covers outpatient treatment (for the purposes of this discussion).

next step. can anyone recommend a cheap health insurer who can meet the requirements?
junkster, that $66 plan sounds reasonable, who was that with?

kdevitt, your agent probably pushed the irish-aus RHC though, they are good at that kind of thing. if i was you i would try find out either way in case you need to go to hospital.

apologies for the very late reply, its the 190 plan here

http://www.austhealth.com/

daftdave

Mahatma coat wrote: »

Yeah, I renewed my 457 there a few months ago, and I HAD to have some form of insurance, I enquired as to why when my Last 457 didnt need any, they said that the rules had changed.

For anyone unsure I would sugest Getting the CORRECT health cover whilst your aplication is being processed anyway, the other thing they told me was that the $40 or $66 dollar packages dont cover the 457 requirements, thats $100/month

i can confirm that out application was succesful and we recieved our sponsorship about a month ago on the $66 package from the link above,

also we did not use an immigration lawyer or anything like that , we fully submitted the application ourselves.

lg123

daftdave, were you told by your case officer you needed to get health insurance?

daftdave

lg123 wrote: »

daftdave, were you told by your case officer you needed to get health insurance?

em no , friends of ours were sponsored a few weeks before us by a large computer company , the company sorted their application for them and that was the level of insurance that was required.

so we followed and got the same cover and we had no problem.

daftdave

the link i posted above has in a blue box beside the 190 plan

"All Plans comply with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) health benefit requirements (visa condition 8501) for 457 and other 400 series visas. Instant visa letter upon joining."

pretty much answers the question .

csm

So I've had a bit of back and forth with the Australian High Commission in London. Here are the relevant bits (my question first, their response after):

Thank you, I have read the material below previously. Ireland has a RHCA but unlike any other country where a 457 is needed, you do not need to enrol in Medicare to avail of it. You only need to provide your passport at point of contact. I would like you to confirm that health or travel insurance is therefore not needed, as Irish passport holders are already covered by the RHCA. Can you confirm or deny that specific request please?

As previously advised, all 457 visa holders are required to maintain health insurance for the duration of their stay in Australia. As a citizen of a country with a RHCA with Australia, evidence of travel insurance will still be required for the purpose of the grant of the visa even if you are not required to register with Medicare once in Australia.

So I'm taking it that insurance is required for the visa application.

rahanpob

csm wrote: »

So I've had a bit of back and forth with the Australian High Commission in London. Here are the relevant bits (my question first, their response after):





So I'm taking it that insurance is required for the visa application.

Hi Folks,

I (my company) applied for my 457 visa some weeks ago. I was not asked or did i give any evidence of having any health insurance. I received confirmation, yesterday, that I have been granted my 457 visa (along with my defacto partner whom is also Irish).

My visa was granted on based upon the following two conditions,

A) Condition - 8501
The visa holder must maintain adequate arrangements for health insurance during their stay in Australia.

B)Condition - 8107
Condition 8107 requires that a primary holder of a subclass 457 visa, sponsored to work in Australia must work only:
1) in the occupation listed in the most recently approved nomination for the holder; and
2) for the standard business sponsor, former standard business sponsor, party to a labour agreement or former party to a labour agreement (the sponsor) who nominated the holder in the most recently approved nomination, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and an associated entity of the sponsor; unless:
(i) the holder's occupation is specified in an instrument in writing or
(ii) the holder is continuing to work for the sponsor, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and
3) if the holder ceases employment - the period during which the holder ceases employment must not exceed 28 consecutive days.

Make what you will from this.
Regards.

kdevitt

I actually ended up discussing this with a manager in admissions at Royal North Shore last week - yes the Irish passport provides adequate insurance, and will cover most eventualities. If you're pregnant before you arrive in Australia, you are also covered fully for any admission. If you get pregnant while there you are not covered for the admission, but are covered for all treatment.

She advised getting health insurance if we were planning on another baby while we're here, otherwise our reciprocal will do the job.

olearyj1

rahanpob wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I (my company) applied for my 457 visa some weeks ago. I was not asked or did i give any evidence of having any health insurance. I received confirmation, yesterday, that I have been granted my 457 visa (along with my defacto partner whom is also Irish).

My visa was granted on based upon the following two conditions,

A) Condition - 8501
The visa holder must maintain adequate arrangements for health insurance during their stay in Australia.

B)Condition - 8107
Condition 8107 requires that a primary holder of a subclass 457 visa, sponsored to work in Australia must work only:
1) in the occupation listed in the most recently approved nomination for the holder; and
2) for the standard business sponsor, former standard business sponsor, party to a labour agreement or former party to a labour agreement (the sponsor) who nominated the holder in the most recently approved nomination, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and an associated entity of the sponsor; unless:
(i) the holder's occupation is specified in an instrument in writing or
(ii) the holder is continuing to work for the sponsor, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and
3) if the holder ceases employment - the period during which the holder ceases employment must not exceed 28 consecutive days.

Make what you will from this.
Regards.

I have experienced the exact same process i.e. obtained 457 Visa without producing evidence of health insurance.....

To be on the safe side, i'm now thinking of paying for one......can someone please advise of the best aussie one to go with? OR would it be better to go with VHI from Ireland?

mandrake04

I have full Medicare and I still have Private insurance, cant imagine why people don't want to pay it.

It covers me for Hospital, Ambulance and dental.

I cant think of anything as bad as getting a toothache and having to pay $2K to get it fixed.

pf85

I've a similar query on this issue and would be grateful if anyone know the answer..

Im going to Australia on Friday for a month's holiday. I live in NI but have an Irish passport- am I covered for any medical care whilst im over there ie. if I need to be taken to hospital say for a broken leg? Am I covered or will I have to pay out for all expenses?

Thanks

Vorsprung

pf85 wrote: »

I've a similar query on this issue and would be grateful if anyone know the answer..

Im going to Australia on Friday for a month's holiday. I live in NI but have an Irish passport- am I covered for any medical care whilst im over there ie. if I need to be taken to hospital say for a broken leg? Am I covered or will I have to pay out for all expenses?

Thanks

You are covered for emergency medical treatment in hospitals, not sure about GPs. That's everything from car crashes to needing a few stiches to breaking a bone. Bring your passport to hospital with you should the worst happen.

lg123

rahanpob wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I (my company) applied for my 457 visa some weeks ago. I was not asked or did i give any evidence of having any health insurance. I received confirmation, yesterday, that I have been granted my 457 visa (along with my defacto partner whom is also Irish).

My visa was granted on based upon the following two conditions,

A) Condition - 8501
The visa holder must maintain adequate arrangements for health insurance during their stay in Australia.

B)Condition - 8107
Condition 8107 requires that a primary holder of a subclass 457 visa, sponsored to work in Australia must work only:
1) in the occupation listed in the most recently approved nomination for the holder; and
2) for the standard business sponsor, former standard business sponsor, party to a labour agreement or former party to a labour agreement (the sponsor) who nominated the holder in the most recently approved nomination, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and an associated entity of the sponsor; unless:
(i) the holder's occupation is specified in an instrument in writing or
(ii) the holder is continuing to work for the sponsor, or the associated entity of the sponsor, for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement under a law relating to industrial relations and relating to the giving of notice; and
3) if the holder ceases employment - the period during which the holder ceases employment must not exceed 28 consecutive days.

Make what you will from this.
Regards.

just got my visa and it was the exact same as the above. i rang immi to try clarify and when i told him i had a 'reciprocal health care card' he said i didnt need insurance. just one thing, he told me that when i returned to oz on my 457 i should go to medicare and show them my new visa.........the best explaination i could get for that was it was just for their records.