Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A person shall not make a contract of insurance with another person that contains a provision purporting to make the first - mentioned person liable to make a payment in the event of the incurring by the other person of a liability to pay medical expenses in respect of the rendering in Australia of a professional service for which medicare benefit is payable.
(2) Where there is a contract of insurance (whether made before or after the commencement of this section) under which the insurer is liable to make a payment in the event of the incurring by that person of liability to pay medical expenses in respect of the rendering in Australia of a professional service, there is an implied condition in the contract that the insurer is not liable for loss arising out of the incurring of liability to pay medical expenses in respect of the rendering in Australia of a professional service in respect of which a medicare benefit is payable.
(a) the proper law of a contract of insurance would, but for a term that it should be the law of some other country or a term to the like effect, be part of the law of any part of Australia; or
(b) a contract of insurance contains a term that purports to substitute, or has the effect of substituting, provisions of the law of some other country or of a State or Territory for all or any of the provisions of this section;
this section applies to the contract notwithstanding that term.
(4) Any term of a contract of insurance (including a term that is not set out in the contract but is incorporated in the contract by another term of the contract) that purports to exclude, restrict or modify or has the effect of excluding, restricting or modifying the application in relation to that contract of all or any of the provisions of this section is void.
(5) A term of a contract shall not be taken to exclude, restrict or modify the application of a provision of this section unless the term does so expressly or is inconsistent with that provision.
(5A) This section does not apply in relation to a contract of insurance entered into by a private health insurer in so far as the contract is a complying health insurance policy that covers hospital treatment or hospital - substitute treatment.
(6) This section does not apply in relation to a contract of insurance in so far as it contains a provision making a person liable to make a payment if an eligible visitor incurs a liability of a kind referred to in subsection (1).
"cover" has the meaning given by section 69 - 5 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 .
"eligible visitor" means a person who is to be treated as an eligible person for the purposes of this Act during his or her stay in Australia solely because he or she is a person to whom an agreement under subsection 7(1) relates.
"insurance" means insurance within the meaning of paragraph 51(xiv) of
the Constitution.