Medicare eligibility for enrolments 011-23032034

If the customer has come from a country that has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Australia, they may have access to Medicare.

See Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) eligibility for Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for a current list of countries.

The customer must meet the criteria of the RHCA to enrol in Medicare.

Note: a customer’s citizenship is not an indicator of their country of residence.

A customer is eligible to enrol in Medicare if they have applied for a permanent residency visa or permanent protection visa and:

• live in Australia
• have permission to work

If they do not have permission to work, they are only eligible for Medicare if:

• they have a relationship with a parent, de facto, spouse or child who lives in Australia and is:
• an Australian citizen
• a New Zealand citizen, or
• a holder of a permanent resident visa
• eligible under a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) and meet the criteria of that country

Note: this does not include a Parent visa.

See Applicants for permanent residency eligibility for Medicare for more details.

A customer is eligible to enrol in Medicare when they have been granted permanent residency and are living in Australia.

See Medicare eligibility for customers with permanent resident status for more details.

Section 6(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 provides that the Minister for Health can order that a particular person or group of persons be eligible for Medicare. That is, even though they would not, by usual eligibility rules, be regarded as eligible.

See Ministerial orders and Medicare eligibility for more details. A link to Ministerial order numbers that have Medicare eligibility and their effective dates can be found on the Resources page for quick reference.

New Zealand citizens who live in Australia are covered under the definition of 'Australian resident' included in the Health Insurance Act 1973. New Zealand citizens who are visiting Australia are covered by the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) between Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand citizens who reside in Australia are eligible for Medicare if any of the following apply:

• they intend to reside in Australia
• they have been or will be in Australia for 6 or more months

See Medicare eligibility for New Zealand citizens for more details.

The eligibility for Medicare for some Australian citizens may need to be investigated. These include:

• customers returning to Australia after an extended period of time
• missionaries
• homeless persons
• residents of Australian dependencies (Norfolk Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island or Lord Howe Island)

See Australian citizens eligibility for Medicare for more details.