What’s Not Covered By Overseas Student Health Insurance?
27 Mar 2016
Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) will not cover everything that could happen to your health while you are in Australia.
What is not covered by OSHC?
There are several things that are not covered by OSHC, including some things that insurance companies are not allowed to cover, things not covered by Medicare, and some specialist treatments.
OSHC is not allowed to cover
Insurance companies are not allowed to cover some things under OSHC policies:
- Treatment you arranged before coming to Australia
- Treatment you need while you are travelling to or from Australia
- Transportation of you or your children into or out of Australia
- Treatment that is already paid for by a court order for compensation (also called “damages”)
Not covered by Medicare or OSHC
Then there are some things are not covered by your OSHC because they are not covered by Medicare (the Australian public system), including:
- Private patient hospital costs (e.g. surgery fees or accommodation)
- Visiting a dentist and most dental examinations and treatment
- Dentures
- Glasses and contact lenses and other visits to the optometrist
- Most physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, eye therapy, chiropractic services, podiatry (foot care), or psychology services
- Hearing aids and appliances
- Acupuncture (unless it is treatment given by a doctor)
- Home nursing
- Long-term care (also called custodial care)
- Medical and hospital costs while still overseas
- Cosmetic surgery, and other medical and hospital services that are not necessary
- Medical examinations for life insurance, superannuation, memberships, or getting a job
Specialist treatments not covered by OSHC
In addition, insurance providers do not cover or pay for certain things such as:
- Infertility treatments such as IVF
- Extras services such as going to a dentist, physiotherapist, optometrist, or other medical and alternative treatment services
- Services not covered by Medicare such as laser eye surgery, cosmetic surgery, or experimental surgery
- Treatment outside of Australia
- Non-essential hospital items such as buying food from the hospital cafeteria
You can still get cover for these things
So what if you need to get a new pair of glasses while you are in Australia, for example, or you want to visit the dentist or you need to get your wisdom teeth taken out? The good news is that you can still get health insurance to cover many of the things listed above!
You can buy a general health insurance (or extras health insurance) policy on top of your OSHC insurance policy. An extras health policy can cover you for medical expenses like a trip to the dentist, physiotherapist, or optometrist.
Different extras policies cover different things. You can compare extras health insurance and find a good value policy for you by using the Canstar website.
Compare Extras Health Insurance with Canstar
Compare OSHC student health policies
If you are looking for OSHC, find the insurance that provides outstanding value for international students. See the comparison table below for a snapshot of the current policies available to the market for a student with a 1 year study visa in NSW. Compare features and costs for OSHC student health insurance in Australia on the Canstar website:
Compare OSHC Student Health Cover with Canstar
Find out more about OSHC with our latest star ratings report:
