slyder - once you hit $1500 in out of pocket medical expenses (anything that is claimable from medicare but not paid by them, as well as dental, and pharmaceutical explenses) you can claim 20% of your out of pocket expenses as a rebate on your tax.

as an example, DH and i both had major dental work (surgery,plus a plate for DH, surgery and root canal for me), on top of lap and AC for me in the last financial year - our medical out of pocket expenses totalled about $3500 for the year - we were able to claim 20% of the out of pockets that were over the $1500 threshold (so around $2000) as a rebate on tax! all you need to do is keep track of it all (you can register for medicare online and then get your tax statement printed at tax time next year, my PHI allows a similar thing) - and claim it through your tax. i couldn't work out where to include it when looking at e-tax online, and haven't looked at a tax pack - but our accountant was fabulous at making sure it was included...

hope that helps