Are You A Sexpat Or Do You Ride The Backwards Morality Train?

[CaseyJones]

Good day,

I have seen some healthy and informative discussion on the financial issues of being non tax resident of Australia.

Are there any other issues to be aware of that are not related to tax/income IE Health, immigration, partner visas etc?

 

Thanks,

Casey

[gearbox]

2 hours ago, CaseyJones said:

Good day,

I have seen some healthy and informative discussion on the financial issues of being non tax resident of Australia.

Are there any other issues to be aware of that are not related to tax/income IE Health, immigration, partner visas etc?

 

Thanks,

Casey

AFAIK we lose Medicare access after 5 years of absence, but in practice it doesn't seem to be enforced.... probably there is no data matching yet between the border control and Medicare.

[JimHuaHin]

14 hours ago, gearbox said:

AFAIK we lose Medicare access after 5 years of absence, but in practice it doesn't seem to be enforced.... probably there is no data matching yet between the border control and Medicare.

This is secondhand, so I do not know how reliable it is.

 

Last year an old Australian friend who had been working in Thailand for about 20 years, but had not been back to Australia for 7-8 years, had to verify his identity online with his Australian bank.  He was required to use 3 of 4 forms of identity - passport number, birth certificate number, Medicare card number or driver's license number - he used the first three, no problems.

[gearbox]

3 hours ago, JimHuaHin said:

This is secondhand, so I do not know how reliable it is.

 

Last year an old Australian friend who had been working in Thailand for about 20 years, but had not been back to Australia for 7-8 years, had to verify his identity online with his Australian bank.  He was required to use 3 of 4 forms of identity - passport number, birth certificate number, Medicare card number or driver's license number - he used the first three, no problems.

From the government source:

 

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/activities/retiring-overseas

 

Living overseas and Medicare

Only Australian residents can use Medicare. You can access Medicare for treatment in Australia up to 5 years after you move overseas. 

After 5 years, you won’t be able to access Medicare unless you move back to Australia to live. You’ll need to re-enrol before you can access payments. You must show proof you intend to stay in Australia to re-enrol. 

 

However this doesn't seem to be tracked and enforced at the moment. You are ok as long as you have an address in Australia to get Medicare card sent to. There is no guarantee it will be the same in the future. The government has the data from the border to track and enforce, but it seems low on their to do list.

[Nomadic1460]

This is first hand info. I lived in Thailand over 15 yrs until covid 19 pandemics but had short trips back home during that time. There is no problem of having medicare card again but when you want to private health insurance like NIB ,HCF or BUPA they contact Medicare and they do some calculations how long Medicare  claims have not been made or card used , then they charge you more than anyone who is becoming a new member. I think i pay %2 or 2.5 more. That  is all.

I hope this helps

[gearbox]

14 minutes ago, gearbox said:

From the government source:

 

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/activities/retiring-overseas

 

Living overseas and Medicare

Only Australian residents can use Medicare. You can access Medicare for treatment in Australia up to 5 years after you move overseas. 

After 5 years, you won’t be able to access Medicare unless you move back to Australia to live. You’ll need to re-enrol before you can access payments. You must show proof you intend to stay in Australia to re-enrol. 

 

However this doesn't seem to be tracked and enforced at the moment. You are ok as long as you have an address in Australia to get Medicare card sent to. There is no guarantee it will be the same in the future. The government has the data from the border to track and enforce, but it seems low on their to do list.

Further to that....as everything else there are grey areas.

 

https://www.expattaxes.com.au/medicare-for-australian-citizens-overseas/

 

It is not very clear what happens if you are tax resident and pay Medicare levy but live overseas.

 

As discussed in the above article the government may take Medicare access as a factor when deciding on tax residency.

 

And also one subtle thing about travel insurance - all the insurers I know about require the policyholder to be a resident of some country for medical purposes. It is usually the country of citizenship. If the ongoing medical expenses are piling up, they may decide to dump the policyholder to the national health service and terminate the cover. So it is not clear what happens  if you are in trouble, have travel insurance, but not Medicare.

[Stevemercer]

My wife (living in Thailand, but also an Australian ciizen) hadn't used her Medicard for many years and recently asked me to get a new one when I was last in Australia. From memory, it was ultimately easy to do (e.g. there were no checks) but we had to provide 2 separate  'proof of address'. She did have 2 Australian bank accounts an we printed out statements which were accepted.

 

You need to maintain an active account in 'MyGov' where you can link to Medicare, the Tax Office etc. This amkes things simpler, but you do need an Australian addess.

[CaseyJones]

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[CaseyJones]

Apart from the official line, any hearsay stories of being treated differently by Australian authorities because you are non tax resident?