Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA)

Whether you’re an overseas visitor or relocating to Australia, it’s important that you find out if you will be covered by Medicare.

Most visitors will not be covered. This means that if you need medical attention you could find yourself substantially out of pocket. Even in a public hospital you could be charged more than $1,000 a day in hospital fees alone.

To see if you qualify for Medicare visit www.medicareaustralia.gov.au

Residents of some countries may qualify for access to Medicare via Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA).

The Australian Government has RHCA with the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Malta, Italy, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand. New RHCA may be negotiated at any time.

Under RHCA membership you may be entitled to limited Medicare benefits. Benefits are only for basic medical services or only for emergency treatment and only under certain conditions. Many items such as ambulance, dental work, subsidised medicines and private patient hospital costs or other ancillary/extras cover or services are not covered. Post-arrival time limits and other restrictions may also apply.

It’s also important to remember that Medicare offers benefits, but it doesn’t cover every possibility.

To keep your health a priority, use iSelect to compare private health insurance policies on offer from our range of providers, and select the one which suits you.

Having Reciprocal Health Cover also exempts you from paying the Medicare Levy Surcharge.