The Medicare levy on a temporary visa
Does my passport change whether I pay the Medicare levy?
Your passport decides it. Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements with a set of countries whose citizens are entitled to Medicare — and entitlement is exactly what the exemption turns on.
Two people, same visa, same salary, different answer
The Medicare levy exemption is not about your visa. It is about whether you are entitled to Medicare benefits. A reciprocal healthcare agreement gives you that entitlement, which means you are not exempt — the agreement that helps you at a hospital is the one that costs you the levy.
So two people on the same 482 visa, earning the same salary, get different answers depending on which passport they hold. That is not a quirk to work around; it is the rule working as written.
The list is the thing to check
The agreement countries are held as a record here and read at the source, because the list changes and because a stale list gives a confidently wrong answer. Which country you hold decides whether the exemption applies at all — before any of the arithmetic starts.
The condition that voids it either way
Every dependant must also be outside Medicare. A Medicare-entitled spouse removes the exemption regardless of your own passport.
What this rests on
Every figure above comes from one of these records. This list is generated from them, so it cannot fall out of step with the calculator.
- Services Australia — RHCA
- au.rhca.members · effective 1 Jul 2026 · read 31 Aug 2026
- ATO — Medicare levy exemption, not entitled to Medicare benefits
- au.mes.exemption · effective 1 Jul 2019 · read 23 Aug 2026