Health Insurance

Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC)

Health Insurance is an insurance coverage that covers the costs of medical and hospital care of an insured person while he is in Australia. It includes cover for visits to the doctor, some hospital treatment, ambulance cover and limited pharmaceuticals The nature of health cover depends upon the number of applicants included in the visa application. For a single applicant, a single health cover is required while for a couple or family members, either couple insurance or a family health cover is needed. There are many health insurance providers who offer different types of health covers depending upon your requirements. The cost of the insurance cover varies according to the duration and nature of the health cover as well as the health insurance provider.

Overseas Visa Health Cover (OVHC)

An international applicant wishing to travel to or work in Australia must have appropriate health policy to cover the duration of their stay. Overseas Visa Health Cover, widely known as the OVHC is the health insurance category that fulfils this requirement. A lot of visa categories are covered by this policy such as visitor visas (subclasses 300, 580, 590, 600, 601), bridging visas, working visas (subclasses 482, 485, 400,401, 476, 489, etc) and working holiday visas (subclasses 417 & 462). If you are a recent international graduate and are applying for your Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), you will need to switch from OSHC to OVHC to meet the health requirements. Like OSHC, there are different health policy types you can choose from depending upon your application nature (i.e. single policy for single applicants, couple policy for couples and family cover to include your partner and children under 18 years of age). The cost varies upon the policy type, the duration of the visa as well as the insurance provider. However, unlike the OSHC policies where you need to pre-purchase your policy for the entire duration of your stay, the OVHC cover costs can be paid on a monthly basis. A few of the insurance companies are listed below: