What is medical treatment?
For the purposes of release on compassionate grounds, medical treatment is the application of medicines or the practice of medicine to a person, such as surgery or psychotherapy.
The medical treatment must meet both of the following eligibility conditions:
- Eligibility condition 1: you or your dependant must require the medical treatment to either
- treat a life-threatening illness or injury
- alleviate acute or chronic pain
- alleviate acute or chronic mental illness.
- Eligibility condition 2: the medical treatment is not readily available through the public health system.
- If you or your dependant have borrowed money to pay for the medical treatment, further eligibility criteria for the borrowed amount will need to be met in addition to the above.
Eligible treatments
Expenses for the following medical treatments may be eligible where specific evidence is provided:
- surgery
- psychiatric treatment
- medicinal drugs
- in vitro fertilisation treatments
- dental treatment.
Ineligible treatments
The following expenses are generally not considered medical treatment because they’re general personal expenses:
- payment of household bills and general living expenses such as rent and utilities
- payment of outstanding personal debts such as credit card debts or bank loans unless they were used to pay for an eligible expense
- holidays, health retreats, spa treatments and gym membership
- administration fees charged by a third party to help you prepare your application
- cosmetic procedures that are not required to treat a life-threatening illness or alleviate acute or chronic pain or mental illness.
Other expenses that are generally not eligible include:
- treatment not related to Eligibility condition 1
- treatment that a registered medical practitioner does not consider necessary to Eligibility condition 1
- treatment for potential conditions – that is, medical conditions you may develop in the future but don’t currently have.
