PSA for migrants to Australia

There is a little piece of information that probably no one has ever told you, and that is not readily accessible on the relevant websites (although it is buried somewhere on a pdf you can download from Medicare.)

If you are ever going to apply for permanent residence, or even think that you might possibly do so, you should hold on to every medical bill/receipt you ever get. Once you are a permanent resident and can enrol in Medicare, your enrolment is backdated to the date of your arrival into Australia, and you can request a refund of every medical expense from that date to the present. Eye tests, doctor's visits, the difference between what you pay for prescriptions and what Australians pay: the lot.

If you have the documentation. (Guess who doesn't?)