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Health Information and Services
The Australian Health System offers a mix of public and private cover and providers to deliver health services. The universal public health system, called Medicare, covers most hospital and medical services, but not all.
To cover expenses partially or not covered by Medicare, you can purchase private health insurance or self-insure by saving money for future health expenses.
Private health insurance offers "a la carte" cover where you can choose the type (hospital, extra/ancillary or combined) and level (basic, medium, top) of cover you want.
Purchasing private health insurance does not cancel your entitlements to the public (Medicare) cover. Even if you have private health insurance, you can still be treated as a public patient in a public hospital.
If you are eligible for Medicare, purchasing private health insurance is not compulsory. You may decide to get insured to:
- Cut Down Waiting Times
- Cap your out-of-pocket expenses
- Visa requirement
- Ambulance Cover
- Sport Injury
- Pregnancy
- Minimise taxes
- Peace of Mind
- Choose your doctor in hospital.
If you are not eligible for Medicare, you may have to purchase private health insurance as it may be a visa requirement. Check with an immigration officer or visit the Department of Immigration website.
Some overseas people may be eligible for a full or partial Medicare cover, for more information visit the Department of Immigration website. Visitors from the UK, Italy, Belgium, the Netherland, Slovenia, Malta, Sweden, Finland and Norway benefit from Medicare cover which may have some limitations.
The icons below provide links to external sources to get information about the public and private health system.
This section provides general information whether you are looking to get insured, needing general information or searching to access services in a community language or in English. To better assess whether or not you need private health insurance, it is important to understand the Australian health care system and who and what is covered by Medicare, the free public health cover.
You may also want to consider how and where to benefit from financial help available or read about general health issues.
Please click on your State or Territory from the list below:
Or click on the map for Health Services and Information in your State or Territory.
