Lifetime Health Cover for new migrants: the twelve months after Medicare
Arrived recently and over 31? Enter your age on the 1 July before you would join: if your twelve months have passed, the calculator gives your loading and its price in your state.
Your Lifetime Health Cover loading
16 %
$151 a year on the cheapest policy in Western Australia, for 10 years of continuous cover.
| Your own loading | 16 % |
| Cheapest exempt policy, full premium | $946 |
| Loading per year | $151 |
| Over 10 years at today's premium | $1,514 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · thresholds read on ato.gov.au, premiums from privatehealth.gov.au data · not tax advice
A new migrant to Australia gets a base day of their own for Lifetime Health Cover: the later of the 1 July following the 31st birthday and the first anniversary of full Medicare registration. In practice, someone who arrives at 38 and registers for Medicare has twelve months from that registration to take out private hospital cover with no loading. Full registration means registration for interim or full Medicare benefits, usually shown by a blue or green Medicare card; reciprocal Medicare does not count. Miss the twelve months and the normal rule applies: 2 % for every year you were over 30 on the 1 July before joining. PrivateHealth.gov.au gives the case of Sonja, registered in April 2013 and insured only in October 2018 at 36: her loading is 12 %. On the cheapest single policy in Western Australia, $946 a year, that is $114 more each year for ten years.
Two dates, take the later one
For anyone who arrives in Australia already over 31, the usual deadline has long passed. The rules give them a fresh one. PrivateHealth.gov.au sets the base day of a new migrant at the later of:
- the 1 July following the 31st birthday; or
- the first anniversary of full Medicare registration.
The ATO says the same thing in its list of people who do not pay the loading: a new migrant aged 31 or over who had hospital cover within 12 months of being registered for full Medicare benefits. For a migrant who arrives at 27, the first date is the later one and the usual rule applies. For a migrant who arrives at 45, it is the anniversary of registration.
| Arrival situation | Base day | Loading if insured within the window | Loading if insured two years after registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered at 27, now 29 | the 1 July after the 31st birthday | 0 % | 0 % |
| Registered at 38 | first anniversary of registration | 0 % | 20 % |
| Registered at 45 | first anniversary of registration | 0 % | 34 % |
| Registered at 60 | first anniversary of registration | 0 % | 64 % |
Sonja's case, step by step
The Ombudsman's example shows the order of the tests. Sonja registers for full Medicare benefits, a green card, on 20 April 2013. Her 31st birthday is on 8 January 2014. The anniversary of her registration is 20 April 2014; the 1 July after her 31st birthday is 1 July 2014. The later of the two is 1 July 2014, so that is her base day. She buys private hospital cover on 2 October 2018, aged 36, and pays 12 %: (36 minus 30) times 2 %.
Had she registered at 33 instead, her base day would have been the anniversary of registration, and any policy bought in the following twelve months would have carried no loading at all.
Loading for a migrant couple who missed the window
Loading on your couple policy
21 %
| Your own loading | 24 % |
| Partner's loading | 18 % |
| Cheapest exempt policy, full premium | $1,893 |
| Loading per year | $397 |
A couple who arrived together
When both partners miss the window, each has their own loading, and the couple policy carries the average. A couple aged 42 and 39 on the 1 July before joining have 24 % and 18 %, so 21 % on the policy. On the cheapest couple policy in Western Australia, $1,893 a year before the rebate, that adds $397 a year for ten years. If one partner joined within the window and the other did not, the average halves the late joiner's loading.
Choosing a policy inside the window
Any private hospital policy from an Australian registered insurer meets the Lifetime Health Cover deadline, whatever its tier. A migrant who wants time to compare can take a low cost Basic policy before the anniversary, keep it, and move to a fuller policy later: changing product or insurer without a gap does not reset anything, and the loading stays at zero. The cheapest single policy in Western Australia that also avoids the surcharge costs $78.86 a month before the rebate in the file of 1 October 2026; the Western Australia page lists the others.
Visitors, students and the policies that do not count
Many people arrive on a temporary visa that requires Overseas Visitors Health Cover or Overseas Student Health Cover. Neither counts as hospital cover for Lifetime Health Cover, and neither stops the Medicare levy surcharge either. Before full Medicare registration, the Lifetime Health Cover window has not opened. Once a visa holder is registered for full or interim Medicare benefits, the twelve months run, and a visitor policy kept out of habit does not stop them running.
The Medicare levy surcharge is a separate clock
The twelve month window concerns the loading only. The surcharge runs from the first day you are both liable and without hospital cover: once your income for MLS purposes is over $105,000 (single, 2026-27) and you are no longer in a Medicare levy exemption category, every day without an Australian hospital policy counts. A new resident on $140,000, liable for the surcharge from registration, who waits the full twelve months pays $1,750 in surcharge for a full year. Visa holders and expats sets out when the exemption ends. The general rule for everyone else is on the Lifetime Health Cover loading page, and the case of Australians coming home is on returning from overseas.