The government’s immigration health requirement prevents any migrant with an illness, disease, or intellectual or physical disability from obtaining a visa if it is deemed their condition will be too costly to the Australian taxpayer or put the general public at risk.
Prior to 1 July, the policy underpinning the requirement set the threshold for significant cost at $40,000 but under the new changes. This has now been increased to $49,000.
The way the cost of people with permanent disabilities or conditions seeking permanent residency is calculated has also been updated.
Previously, people with permanent conditions could be rejected if the hypothetical cost of their care exceeded the cost threshold over their lifetime. Now, the hypothetical cost will be calculated over ten years.
“It is a very significant change and it does impact on people with health and disability issues very profoundly,” health and disability specialist and registered migration agent Jan Gothard told SBS News.
Government quiet on changes
Dr Gothard, who works at Western Australia migration law firm Estrin Saul, said she had not been aware of the changes - which came in with the new financial year - until her colleague stumbled across them while reviewing the government’s policy recently.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told SBS News the department had recently developed a new calculation methodology for the significant cost threshold which will allow it to be updated every two years to keep up with the changing cost of healthcare.
In regards to reducing the costing period to ten years, the department said it would improve the reliability of cost estimations.
Advocates have been fighting for a loosening of the regulation for many years, with a number of high profile cases recently drawing attention to the issue.
But while advocates and migration agents welcome the changes, they are quick to point out that they are only a small step forward.
Vice president of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) Natalie Wade told SBS News: “The very heart of what our issues are as lawyers, as advocates, as migrants, is still that the significant cost threshold is very low when you compare it to what the cost of living with a chronic health condition or disability is.”
She said the changes were most likely to positively affect people with permanent disabilities, or those with conditions including hepatitis B, down syndrome and cerebral palsy who are hoping to live in Australia permanently.
The changes also mean that the government’s disability support pension - which was previously counted in the cost calculations - will not be considered, as migrants are not eligible for the payment until they have been in the country for more than ten years.
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