Ethicare Resourcing
A stethoscope with its tubing drawn into a heartbeat line
Reference guide

Understanding
healthcare in Australia

How Australian healthcare fits together, and where you and your family stand from the day you land.

How it works Can I work in Australia?
The big picture

A universal system, with private care alongside

Reviewed July 2026 · checked against current Services Australia and Department of Health guidance. Rules and thresholds change; confirm your own position at the source.

Australia runs a universal public system, funded through taxation and a Medicare levy, alongside a substantial private sector. Most people use a mix of the two.

Healthcare is delivered by the states and territories but underpinned by national funding and a national medicines scheme, so standards are broadly consistent wherever you live.

The short version. Permanent residents enrol in Medicare and most care is free or heavily subsidised. On a temporary work visa, your position depends on your passport. Either way, plan for dental, ambulance and optical, which sit outside Medicare for most adults.

The backbone

Medicare, in plain terms

Medicare is the national scheme that subsidises or covers much of the cost of care. Sort it early.

What it covers

Much of your care

Free treatment as a public patient in a public hospital, and rebates toward GP visits, tests and many specialist services. Some services are bulk-billed (nothing to pay); others carry a gap fee, the difference between the rebate and the clinic’s charge.

Who’s eligible

Depends on your visa & passport

Citizens and permanent residents enrol. Many temporary visa holders qualify through a reciprocal health care agreement with their home country. Others rely on private cover, sometimes as a condition of the visa.

The levy

How it’s funded

Most taxpayers pay a Medicare levy through income tax, a proportion of income. Higher earners without private hospital cover may also pay a surcharge. Rates change; check the current figures with the ATO.

The question everyone asks first

Where you’ll stand, by how you arrive

There are broadly three positions.

1

Permanent resident or citizen, full Medicare

You enrol and you’re in: public hospital care, GP rebates, PBS medicines. Your dependent children are enrolled alongside you.

2

Temporary work visa, from a reciprocal-agreement country

Australia holds reciprocal health care agreements with eleven countries: the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden. With a passport from one of these and an eligible visa, you can enrol for Medicare access to medically necessary treatment.

Cover varies by country. Most agreements include subsidised GP visits and public hospital treatment; the New Zealand and Ireland agreements are narrower and don’t extend to GP visits in the same way. Check your own country’s agreement at the source.

3

Temporary visa, no reciprocal agreement

If your passport isn’t on that list (South Africa, the UAE, India and the Philippines aren’t), you won’t enrol in Medicare on a temporary visa. You’ll hold private health insurance instead; for most sponsored work visas maintaining adequate cover is a formal visa condition (condition 8501). Employers sometimes contribute; often they don’t.

We’re recruiters, not migration or insurance advisers: we’ll tell you what to check and where; the answer has to come from the official source or a licensed adviser.

First fortnight

Enrolling, and what to bring

Arrive with the paperwork already in a folder.

1

Enrol once you’ve arrived

You enrol after you land, in person at a service centre or online depending on your circumstances. It isn’t done from abroad.

2

Bring passports and visa evidence

Passports for every family member and evidence of your visa grant. Under a reciprocal agreement, you’ll usually need to show you’re enrolled in your home country’s system.

3

Have an Australian address ready

The card is posted. Temporary accommodation is generally fine; a rental agreement or utility bill is faster.

4

Set up a myGov account

MyGov is the front door to most government services, Medicare included. Link Medicare to it in your first week.

5

Interim cover in the gap

Hold travel or private cover between landing and your card arriving, particularly with children.

6

Then choose a GP

Register the family with a local practice before anyone is unwell. New-patient appointments can take a fortnight or more.

Two systems, working together

Public and private

The public system

State-run hospitals and services provide emergency, acute and much elective care, free or heavily subsidised through Medicare. Most teaching, training and complex work happens here, and most of the roles we recruit for.

The private system

Private hospitals and clinics offer choice of provider and often shorter elective waits, funded by insurance and out-of-pocket fees. Many clinicians work across both.

How patients move between them

The same specialist may see you publicly or privately; the same scan may be bulk-billed at one clinic and charged at another. Elective waits are the usual reason families take out cover; urgent care doesn’t wait in either system.

Told straight

Private health insurance

Whether you need it depends on your visa, your income and your family.

If it’s a visa condition, it isn’t optional. Many temporary work visas require you to hold and maintain adequate health cover for yourself and every family member for your whole stay, including through job changes. Letting it lapse is a visa problem.

If you’re Medicare-eligible, it’s your choice. Families choose cover for shorter elective waits, choice of doctor, a private room, and “extras” policies toward dental, optical and physiotherapy, which Medicare largely doesn’t fund for adults.

Two rules to know before you decide. Higher earners without private hospital cover pay a surcharge at tax time, so for some households cover costs less than not having it. A loading increases premiums for people who take out hospital cover later in life, with concessions for recent arrivals, so the timing of your first policy matters. Both thresholds change; get current numbers from the ATO and the government’s comparison site.

Policies also carry waiting periods: months before some services can be claimed, longer for pregnancy and pre-existing conditions. Check that timing if a baby or a known procedure is on the horizon.

Don’t buy the first policy you’re shown. The public system is good; cover buys convenience, choice and the extras.

Everyday care

GPs, referrals and the PBS

Day-to-day healthcare runs through general practice, with a national medicines scheme keeping prescriptions affordable.

Your GP is the first stop for most concerns and the gatekeeper for referrals to specialists and many tests. You can see any GP anywhere, but most families settle on one for continuity.

Bulk billing and gap fees. A bulk-billing practice accepts the Medicare rebate as full payment. Others charge a fee and Medicare refunds part of it, leaving a gap. Bulk billing is more common for children, concession-card holders and in some regional areas, and less common generally, so ask when you book. Specialists usually charge a gap, sometimes a substantial one; ask the cost first.

The PBS. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme caps what most people pay for listed medicines, with a lower cap for concession-card holders and a safety net once a household’s spending passes a yearly threshold. Not every medicine is listed and brand names differ, so check your family’s regular prescriptions against the PBS before you move, and bring a written summary of your medical history and current doses.

Ask if a clinic bulk-bills Ask a specialist’s fee up front Check prescriptions against the PBS Bring a written medical summary Register the family early
The part people don’t expect

What Medicare doesn’t cover

Adult dental

Largely private and out of pocket. There is public dental care for eligible concession-card holders, usually with long waits, and schemes that help with children’s dental for eligible families. Most working adults should plan to pay.

Ambulance

Arranged state by state, not nationally. In some places it’s provided, in others you subscribe or insure, and an uncovered call-out is expensive. Check your state’s arrangement in your first week; it’s usually a small annual cost.

Optical, allied health & more

Glasses, contact lenses, most physiotherapy, psychology beyond limited referred sessions, podiatry and similar sit largely outside Medicare, or attract only partial rebates. This is what “extras” insurance is for.

Families who know about ambulance and dental before they arrive absorb them easily. Families who find out via a bill do not.

If something goes wrong

Knowing where to go, before you need to

Emergency

Call 000

Triple zero reaches ambulance, fire and police. Public hospital emergency departments treat anyone who needs them, regardless of cover.

Urgent, not an emergency

Urgent care & after-hours GPs

Urgent care clinics and after-hours services sit between a GP and an emergency department, with growing bulk-billed provision. For a sprain, a fever or stitches, they’re usually faster.

Not sure

Healthdirect · free advice

A free national advice line and website staffed by health professionals, around the clock. If you’re unsure whether something warrants a hospital, call it first.

Where you come in

Practising in Australian healthcare

Broad experience, a collaborative culture, and national registration that lets you move between states without starting again.

You might work in a public health service, a private provider, or community and primary care; many roles mix the two. Practice tends to be team-based and relatively flat: your professional opinion is expected. Culture varies between workplaces, so ask what a department is like when you interview.

There is a strong emphasis on culturally safe care, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. You’ll meet it in induction and documentation. It is treated as clinical quality, not an add-on.

Services are busy, some regions carry workforce pressure, and distance is a clinical factor: retrieval, telehealth and outreach are ordinary parts of practice.

Stage 03 · Can I work in Australia? sets out the registration pathway, and each profession page covers scope, demand and pay.

Sophie Careem, founder of Ethicare Resourcing
Sophie’s insight

Get your Medicare position clear before you accept the role, choose a family GP early, check your prescriptions before you fly, and find out how ambulance works in your state.

The one I always raise unprompted is dental. It’s the cost people don’t plan for.

SophieFounder, Ethicare Resourcing

Common questions

The things people ask us first

Is everything free?

No. Public hospital care as a public patient is free, and Medicare rebates cover much of everyday care. But many GPs charge a gap, specialists often charge a significant one, and adult dental, ambulance in some states, optical and most allied health sit largely outside Medicare.

Will my regular medication be available?

Usually there’s an equivalent, but brand names and availability differ and not every medicine is listed on the PBS. Check prescriptions against the PBS before you move, bring a written summary of your history and current doses, and carry enough supply for the transition and your first GP appointment.

Are waiting lists long?

For anything urgent, no. Emergency and acute care are prompt and of a high standard. For non-urgent elective surgery, public waits can be long and vary by state and procedure. That gap is the main reason many families hold private hospital cover.

Read a little deeper

Helpful alongside this guide

Stage 03

Can I work in Australia?

The registration pathway for medical imaging and radiation therapy.

Read guide Reference

Education & schools

How schooling works for children of every age.

Read guide Stage 07

Preparing to move

Medicare, banking, housing and the practical set-up.

Read guide
Free, any time

Questions about practising here?

How your role fits the system, or how your family will access care: we’re glad to talk it through.

Ask Ethicare about healthcare See your profession

Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in Australia.