Adding a Grandchild to Your Medicare Card as a Kinship Carer

Why the Medicare Card Matters So Much

A child listed on your Medicare card makes it easier to provide their Medicare details for appointments and access immunisation records through myGov. Whether a GP bulk-bills is up to the practice.

For kinship carers — especially informal carers without a court order — getting the child onto your Medicare card is one of the first practical steps you should take after they arrive.

Form MS011: Copy or Transfer

Services Australia's Form MS011 (Application to copy or transfer from one Medicare card to another) is the mechanism. You can either copy the child onto your card (the child remains on the parent's card as well) or transfer them entirely.

For most kinship carers, a copy is the simpler path because the child remains on the parent's card as well.

To lodge the form, you need:

• The child's birth certificate — original or certified copy
• Proof of care — your informal caregiver statutory declaration, professional support letters, or a court order if you have one
• Your current Medicare card details

Submit through a Services Australia channel. Check with Services Australia for current processing times and accepted submission methods.

What If You Do Not Have the Birth Certificate?

If the parents took the birth certificate with them — or you never had it — contact the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the state or territory where the child was born to ask about a replacement certificate and current fees.

Alternatively, if you have other identity documents for the child (passport, immunisation records with Medicare number), ask the Grandparent Carer Adviser Line (1800 245 965) whether these can be accepted provisionally while you arrange the birth certificate.

What the Card Unlocks

Once the child is on your Medicare card:

• Medicare billing — the card gives the practice the child's Medicare details for billing; the clinic decides whether it bulk-bills. If the child has a Foster Child Health Care Card (with no income test on the carer), the child can access concession-rate PBS medicines.
• Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) — you can view and download the child's immunisation history through myGov; a school may request this for enrolment.
• Child Dental Benefits Schedule — eligible children can access dental services, subject to the scheme's eligibility rules and current benefit limits.
• Medicare Safety Net — the child's medical expenses count toward your household threshold, which means you reach the safety net sooner and get higher rebates for the rest of the year.

The Foster Child Health Care Card

This concession card is separate from Medicare but works alongside it. It is issued in the child's name, there is no income test on the carer, and it grants access to cheaper medicines and lower safety net thresholds.

You do not need to be a formal foster carer to get one — any non-parent carer (grandparent, aunt, uncle, family friend) caring for a child who is not their biological or adopted child can apply through Services Australia.

Having both the Medicare card listing and the Foster Child Health Care Card gives the child the broadest possible healthcare access in the ACT.

The ACT Kinship Carer Support guide includes a healthcare access checklist that walks you through the Medicare card transfer, Foster Child Health Care Card application and immunisation record access.

See more Australian Capital Territory guides →