from the ATO website


Claimable medical expenses
You can claim expenses relating to an illness or operation paid to legally qualified doctors, nurses or chemists and public or private hospitals. However, expenses for some cosmetic operations are excluded.
from this one, i would think perhaps as a legally qualified nurse who is registered to practice outside of a hospital setting, you might be able to claim. i would speak direct to the ATO about it though, as it's very obscure wording...

Medical expenses which qualify for the tax offset also include payments:

to dentists, orthodontists or registered dental mechanics
to opticians or optometrists, including for the cost of prescription spectacles or contact lenses
to a carer who looks after a person who is blind or permanently confined to a bed or wheelchair
for therapeutic treatment under the direction of a doctor
for medical aids prescribed by a doctor
for artificial limbs or eyes and hearing aids
for maintaining a properly trained dog for guiding or assisting people with a disability (but not for social therapy)
for laser eye surgery, and
for treatment under an in-vitro fertilisation program.
i can't see anywhere there that you'd be able to claim an independent middy for homebirth purposes. i would think home visits by a hospy midwife after birth (if directed by a doc) would be covered as something directed by a doctor, but not choosing it yourself (if that makes sense)

if you want to read the whole doc on the ATO site, here is the site


for how the calculation works - if you spend over 1500 in a calendar year on medical expenses (xrays/scans/pathology/doc/hosp - after any medicare or PHI rebates), you get 20c for every dollar over 1500 as a rebate on your tax. so if you spend 2500, the first 1500 is out of pocket, the next 1000 is rebated at 20c in the dollar - so you get 200 back on your tax - and it's based on family outlay, not just yours - between DH and I we've claimed over $1500 back in the past two years...