Enrolling in Medicare

Who can enrol

You can enrol in Medicare if you live in Australia and you’re any of these:

• an Australian citizen
• a New Zealand citizen
• an Australian permanent resident
• applying for permanent residency
• a temporary resident covered by a ministerial order.

You can also enrol if you’re a citizen or permanent resident of any of these:

• Norfolk Island
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• Christmas Island
• Lord Howe Island.

You may be able to enrol if you’re visiting from a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement country.

What you need to enrol

You need to give us different documents depending on your circumstances.

Learn about the documents you need if:

• you’re an Australian citizen
• you’re a New Zealand citizen
• you’re a permanent resident
• you’re applying for permanent residency
• you’re a temporary resident covered by a Ministerial Order
• you’ve adopted a child.

If you’re visiting Australia, you’ll need different documents depending on where you’re from. Read more about Reciprocal Health Care Agreements.

How to enrol

You can enrol in Medicare either:

• online through myGov
• by completing a Medicare enrolment form.

Enrolling online

You can enrol online in Medicare as either an individual or a family through myGov and track the progress.

To enrol online you and your family members need to:

• live in Australia
• have a current passport or ImmiCard
• have valid visa details from the Department of Home Affairs if you’re not an Australian citizen.

If you want to enrol as a family, we need details and identity documents for any children under 15.

If you want to include someone 15 or older, you need to give that person your application number.

They need the number to give us their details and identity documents through their own myGov account to complete their enrolment.

If you have a myGov account sign in and enrol in Medicare. If you don’t have a myGov account you need to create one.

Sign in to myGov

If your application is approved, we’ll contact you with your next steps. We’ll also send you your Medicare card in the mail to the address you gave us.

Extending Medicare eligibility

Your Medicare eligibility may be extended online, depending on you and your family’s circumstances. If you’re able to extend online, you’ll get a reminder through myGov.

You need to sign in to your myGov account to provide details and identify documents to complete the extension.

Enrolling with a form

If you can’t enrol or extend online, complete a Medicare enrolment form. You can mail or email it with your supporting documents to Medicare Enrolment Services. If you email us, include ‘Medicare enrolment’ in the email subject line.

Make sure your documents are:

• in PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP format
• not password protected, or in a WinZip or RAR file
• no larger than 5MB for each document
• no larger than 10MB in total for all the documents.

If you’re enrolling as a family, you’ll need to nominate a contact person for the family Medicare card. We’ll send Medicare cards and other general information for everyone listed on the card to the contact person.

If you’re the only person listed on the Medicare card, you’ll be the contact person for the card.

You can also get a digital copy of your Medicare card. You’ll need to sign into the Express Plus Medicare mobile app to access it. To use the app, you need a myGov account linked to your Medicare online account. If you don’t have these, set them up and then download the app.

Enrolling when you’re on your parent’s Medicare card

If you’re on your parent’s Medicare card, you’re already enrolled. This means you don’t need to re-enrol. When you’re 15, you can get your own Medicare card.

Find out how to get your own card when you’re 15.

Enrolling your newborn baby

You can enrol your newborn baby by using the Newborn Child Declaration. You’ll get the declaration from the hospital. Find out how to enrol your baby.

If you’ve adopted a child or your child was born overseas, you’ll need to give us extra documents. Learn more about what to do:

• if you adopt a child
• if your child was born overseas.

Enrolling when you’re Indigenous

If you’re Indigenous and have standard identity documents, mail or email them with your Medicare enrolment form to Medicare Enrolment Services. You can also enrol online through myGov.

If you don’t have standard identity documents, you can use a referee instead. You and your referee need to fill in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Medicare enrolment and amendment form. The form says who can be a referee.

You can mail, email or take your form to your local agent or access point or service centre. You can also call the Indigenous Access Line if you need help with the form.

Enrolling when you’re visiting Australia

We can cover some health care costs if you’re from a country we have an agreement with. You can get care as a public patient in a public hospital without enrolling in Medicare.

Read more about medical care for visitors to Australia.

Learn about assessing your eligibility.

When you’ll get a Medicare card

You’ll get a Medicare card number after you enrol in Medicare. Learn more about how to get your Medicare card.