Medicare Benefits for Subclass 491, 494, 190 and 189 visa applicants and holder

Medicare Eligibility for Subclass 491 and 494 applicants and holders.

Australian government since announcing these visa subclasses on 491 and 494 were said to be facilitate the holders with Medicare benefits on a temporary basis. Medicare is exercising this facilitation with an annual membership renewed automatically every year.

I have applied for Subclass 491 visa. Am I now eligible for Medicare benefits?

Individuals, couples and families who have been granted a SC491 and SC494 visa and are within Australian migration zone can now apply for a Medicare entitlement benefit and order a card online.

Medicare will automatically convert your membership start date from the date of visa grant so if you have any medical bills since the grant date, you may want to apply for the rebate to see if you could save some bucks.

For the visa waiting applicants, it has become little contradictory with the eligibility of Medicare benefits. The confusion seems to appear from the message that roamed around about Medicare started issuing memberships in the beginning where they were not supposed to be. Some applicants received the benefit and later realised they were not eligible for it. They stopped issuing memberships to those waiting on visa grant from Department of Home Affairs.

It has been confirmed that whoever have applied for the visa and awaiting grant outcome will not be eligible for Medicare membership. This has been clearly mentioned on legislation and below is the evidence we are relying on for this statement.

Both applicants and holders of Subclass 189 and Subclass 190 are eligible for the Medicare membership benefits. Temporary card(s) will be issued to those who have applied for the visas and once granted, Medicare will provide the full membership card automatically after your visa grant. If you have changed your address and have not notified Medicare about the change, you might want to do that immediately as Medicare will send you the card very immediately after the visa grant and also without you requesting for it.