OSHC & OVHC Complaints

Having Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) is a compulsory part of the student visa requirements for most students wanting to study in Australia. Having Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) is compulsory for some visa holders – and strongly recommended for most!

Between the two types of cover, that adds up to a lot of policies in place, it’s good news that in 2013, the Health Insurance Ombudsman had to assist with only 138 claims arising from either Overseas Visitors Health Cover (OVHC) and Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) policies.

What do we complain about?

While there are a number of issues that gave rise to a complaint to the Health Insurance Ombudsman in 2013, the four most common issues of contention were:

Delay in payment of benefit: 11% of complainants were unhappy with the length of time that it took to pay a claim.

Pre-existing conditions (PECs): Just over 10% of claims arose due to the pre-existing condition clause in the health insurance policies.

To quote the HIO Annual Report for 2013:
“Complaints about the application of the PEC waiting period tend to be complicated because information about a person’s medical history before coming to Australia is held overseas. In addition, the length of the PEC waiting period varies between policies.”

Oral Advice: Just under 10% of complaints received related to oral advice given to the insured by the insurer.

Cancellation: Cancellation of cover was the subject matter of more than 7% of claims.

Other issues we complain about

There were also a number of other issues, including general service issues, premium payment problems, hospital restriction/exclusion complaints, informed financial consent and other insurer rules which attracted complaints over the course of the year. As mentioned though, the number of complaints, compared to the number of existing policies, was reasonably small.

How to find a policy for OSHC/OVHC

A number of health insurance providers offer OSHC and OVHC respectively.

Compare Overseas Visitors Health Cover (OVHC) (Working Visa Health Cover)

Compare Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) (International Student Health Cover)

Sponsored products are paid advertisements and do not include all providers. Canstar receives a fee for referring you to the advertiser. Canstar is not giving you advice in relation to sponsored products. See How We Get Paid for further information. If you decide to apply for health insurance, you will deal directly with an insurance provider, and not with Canstar.

Consider the provider’s detailed product and pricing information before making a decision to purchase a policy. The products displayed on this page do not include all providers and may not compare all features relevant to you. View the Canstar Health Insurance Star Ratings Methodology and Report. The rating shown is only one factor to take into account when considering products.

For more information, read our detailed disclosure, important notes and additional information.