Medicare
Medicare provides all Australians with affordable, accessible and high quality health care.
Useful Medicare tips
- Register your family for the Medicare Safety Net
- Let us know if you change your address
- Destroy your old Medicare card if you receive a new one
- Take your Medicare card with you when you visit a doctor
- Take your Medicare card with you when you have a prescription filled
Quick links
- Download a Medicare enrolment form
- Register your family for the Medicare Safety Net
- Download a Medicare claim form
- Download a Medicare two-way claim form
Medicare gives you access to:
- free or subsidised treatment by health professionals such as doctors, specialists, optometrists, dentists and other allied health practitioners (in special circumstances only)
- free treatment and accommodation as a public (Medicare) patient in a public hospital
- 75 per cent of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures if you are a private patient in a public or private hospital (does not include hospital accommodation and items such as theatre fees and medicines).
You need to know
Eligibility for Medicare
Your eligibility for Medicare depends on your residency and other factors. People who live in Australia are eligible for Medicare benefits if they:
- are Australian or New Zealand citizens
- are permanent residents
- have applied for permanent residency (excludes an application for a parent visa) and meet certain other criteria
- are covered by a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with another country.
Medicare benefits
Medicare helps with some of your health care costs. The benefits you receive from Medicare are based on a schedule of fees set by the Australian Government. Doctors may choose to charge more than the fees in the schedule.
Medicare usually pays:
- the full schedule fee for general practitioner services
- 85 per cent of the schedule fee for other out-of-hospital services
- 75 per cent of the schedule fee for in-hospital services.
What Medicare covers
What Medicare covers
Reciprocal Health Care Agreements
Medicare benefits are not available for treatment you receive overseas. However, the Australian Government has signed Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with some countries to cover Australians for the cost of essential medical treatment while they are overseas.
These agreements also provide some health services and subsidised medicines to visitors from these countries when they are in Australia.
Agreements have been signed with:
- New Zealand
- the United Kingdom
- the Republic of Ireland
- Sweden
- the Netherlands
- Belgium
- Finland
- Italy
- Malta
- Norway
- Slovenia.
Visit our going overseas webpage for more details.
First steps
Medicare enrolment information
When you enrol in Medicare, you need to show us original or certified copies of certain documents.
Existing customers
Billing options
You can be bulk billed or have a patient account.
Claiming options
You can claim your Medicare benefit in a number of ways.
Resources
Information security and quality service
We make sure your information is secure with us.