Migrants informed of LHC deadline

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Created on Tuesday, 04 June 2013 15:29

Written by Editorial staff

The Department of Health and Ageing sent a mailout about Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) to around 74,000 new migrants at the beginning of last month.

The goal of this mailout was to inform new migrants about their LHC deadline.

LHC involves the attachment of a financial loading (or extra fee) onto your private health insurance hospital cover.

This loading equates to two per cent of your premium for every year that you are aged over 30. It applies to everyone who has not taken out hospital cover with an Australian registered health fund, such as Bupa, by the time they are 31 - not just migrants.

The only way to avoid paying the extra fee is by taking out hospital cover before your LHC deadline.

As a migrant, you have 12 months to sign up for private health insurance hospital cover from the date you register for Medicare. For everyone else, it is July 1 following their 31st birthday.

If you want to know more, the complete mailout is available online at the Department of Health and Ageing website.

Bupa, an associate of Migration Alliance, can help migrants with purchasing health insurance and minimise LHC where possible. All registered migration agents may want to consider contacting them today.