New calls from medical professionals for visa requirements to include health insurance

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Created on Thursday, 09 February 2012 17:55

Written by Editorial staff

The vice-president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Stephen Parnis, has called for health insurance to become a mandatory part of all migration applications.

His comments have been made in regards to new information released by the AMA to News Limited on February 9 that shows the number of migrants treated in the state's public hospitals had tripled in the six years to fiscal 2010-11.

In the 12 months before June 30 2011, there were over 30,000 patients treated at Victorian hospitals who were not Australian citizens.

While international students and skilled migrant workers on 457 subclass visas - as well as their families - are required to have health insurance as part of their entry conditions, this is not a universal requirement.

The fear for Parnis is that the increase could indicate the growth of so-called 'medical tourism', with individuals travelling to a foreign country for a clinical procedure.

In Victoria the most common countries for international patients were India, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, the US, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia - with the cases ranging from simple colds and flu through to full-blown renal failure and even child-birth.

While the practice itself is common across the world, it brings with it the danger that some patients will leave the country without paying their bills.

To help ensure against this, Parnis suggested that rolling out the need for health insurance across a range of visa subclasses would be a positive step for the medical industry.

Parnis asserted: "If people have the means to come to Australia on an international holiday they should have the means to make allowance for their own healthcare."

As registered migration agents know, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC)  can allow travellers from countries such as UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Italy to access healthcare in the same way as permanent residents.

This is because these nations have signed Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with the Australian government that effectively allows citizens to access subsidised healthcare services for "medically necessary treatments for ill-health or injury" while travelling.

However, these conditions do not extend to elective procedures - meaning that most non-essential treatments must be paid in full, or covered by an individual's personal health care insurance product.