| Sponsor
Liability
When sponsoring a 457 visa employee, a business
gives the Immigration Department specific undertakings regarding
medical, hospital and repatriation costs.
The wording
on Form 1196 is as follows:
"The
business undertakes to do the following in relation to sponsored
persons including accompanying family members:
-
ensure that the cost of return travel by a sponsored person
is met;
-
pay all medical and hospital expenses for a sponsored person
[other than costs that are met by health insurance arrangements]:
- this undertaking continues until such expenses are paid”.
These are two of the fourteen undertakings on Form
1196 which is signed by all Sponsors.
Return travel includes the stretcher, medical escorts,
and other expenses associated with medical repatriation from Australia
to the home country of the sponsored person.
While the undertaking in relation to medical and
hospital expenses is aimed primarily at costs incurred in
the public health system , under law “medical and hospital”
expenses includes all costs
incurred including those expressly excluded under health insurance.
Clouding the issue of 457 visa medical expenses
are two groups:
- those
who see the opportunity for a “health holiday” determined
to obtain treatment which in their home country is unaffordable
[heart pacemaker], not available [IVF treatment], on very long
waiting lists [hernia repair], or not covered by health insurance
[knee cartilage implantation]
- those
who comply by taking out health insurance then secretly cancel
their policy after a month or so, or fail to pay premiums allowing
their policy to lapse – leaving their Sponsor exposed to
risks of varying financial severity.
Ways to address these problems within the framework
of the four pillars of a risk management policy are considered below:
>
Avoid Risk
> Reduce Risk
> Retain Risk
> Transfer Risk
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