Health insurance is an important issue for visitors to Tasmania. Should you require medical attention during your visit and not have health insurance, you will be liable for the entire cost of treatment, which may be substantial.

Most visitors will fall into one of three categories concerning health insurance:

• Those from countries without socialised medicine (e.g. USA). Most American health insurance plans will cover you automatically during a visit to Tasmania; i.e. you do not need to make any arrangements unless you plan on doing 'dangerous' activities such as hang gliding.

• Those from certain countries with a socialised medicine system (e.g. UK, Malta) may be covered under the Australian medicare system. This particularly affects many western European residents - check with your own health system to see if you are covered while visiting Australia.

  Note that this coverage is due to reciprocal arrangements made with the Australian government, and simply being from a country with socialised medicine does not automatically give you coverage.

• Those whose domestic health insurance will not cover them on visits to Tasmania. Everyone in this category should consider taking out health insurance for the duration of their stay in Australia.

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Last reviewed 2006-08-06 12:44:23