Health costs in Australia for overseas visitors

If a visitor from overseas should fall ill or have an accident, the health care cost can be considerable.

However, the health services of some countries have reciprocal agreements with the Australian health services.

The countries which have an agreement with Australia are listed below. The costs of healthcare are also listed.

We advise every visitor to take out travel insurance.

Reciprocal arrangements with other countries

Reciprocal Health Care Agreements cover treatment that is medically essential. This mean emergency treatment for an illness or injury that happens in Australia and needs to be treated before you return home.

The Australian Government has signed Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with the following countries:

United Kingdom
The Republic of Ireland
New Zealand
Sweden
the Netherlands
Finland
Belgium
Norway
Slovenia
Malta
Italy

These agreements give you access to some health services for essential medical treatment while visiting Australia, including:

Free treatment as a public inpatient or outpatient in a public hospital
Subsidised medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
Medicare benefits for out of hospital treatment provided by a doctor
Residents of the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand are entitled to services as a public patient in a public hospital. This includes outpatient services for prescription medicines that are medically necessary and are subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Read more about Reciprocal Health Care Agreements on the Services Australia website.

Overseas-Visitors-Reciprocal-Health-Care.pdf

North Queensland hospitals and health centres