A Look at Student Health Insurance in Australia

If you are planning on going abroad to Australia to study at an Australian college or university you should know that your student visa does not offer you any types of university sponsored health care system. It also does not grant you access to the Australian public health care system, Medicare. That means that if you need to seek medical treatment or services while in Australia you will need to have health insurance in a country that has a reciprocal health care agreement for services and treatment or get your self a student health insurance plan to cover you while you are a student in Australia.

Student health insurance is called overseas student health cover, or OSHC, in Australia and it is mandatory for all students to have it. In fact, foreign students as well as their dependents must be covered by overseas student health cover for the entire duration of their visa, or the first 12 months if the student visa is valid for a period greater than 12 months. You can get your overseas student health cover through almost any of the major health insurance providers in Australia, but Medibank Private is the largest provider of overseas student health cover. You will have to get your overseas student health cover before you come to Australia and actually pay your premium before you arrive in the country. Your premium amount will vary dependent upon the length of your student visa up to the maximum of 12 months. If your student visa goes past 12 months then you will just need to pay another premium after the first 12 months.

If you will be coming to Australia as a government sponsored student then you will not need to worry about your premium. It will be paid by the department or agency of the Australian government that is sponsoring you. They use Medibank Private and make all payments directly to them. And if you are not a government sponsored student then you premium will likely be paid by the school that you will be attending. Oftentimes it is included in course fees for foreign students.

With your overseas student health cover you will get partial, and sometimes full, coverage of the charges die doctors and pathology tests. The payments that you will need to make for services and treatment will be the same as for Medicare members. That means 85 percent of the fee for outpatient services and 100 percent for inpatient services.

Remember that if the doctor you are seeing charges more than the scheduled fee then you will have to pay the difference. And you will find that the things that are not covered by your overseas student health cover are the same things not covered by Medicare. That means that you will need to get private health insurances to pay for any excluded treatments or services.