Compare Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC)

What is OSHC?

Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) insurance is a type of student visa health insurance that you must have if you are an international student visiting Australia to study. OSHC pays part or all of the cost if you have to visit the doctor, go to hospital, need an ambulance, or need to buy pharmacy medicines.

Do you need to have overseas student health insurance?

If you are an international student planning to study in Australia, you will typically require student visa health insurance, or overseas student health cover (OSHC), for the duration of your stay. Having adequate student visa health insurance is a requirement for entering the country and OSHC must be purchased before arriving in Australia. The only exception to this is if you are coming from a country that has a reciprocal healthcare arrangement with Australia.

Overseas students generally cannot access Australia’s public health system, so if you are a student and you happen to need healthcare, you will most often require private health insurance to cover the costs. This is why Australia has made OSHC a condition of entry for most international students on a temporary student visa.

You generally must have OSHC for the whole time you are here on a student visa or bridging visa, and you must prepay for OSHC for the length of your visa before you come to Australia. If you extend your visa, you generally must also renew your OSHC policy.

If your family is coming overseas with you, your spouse (husband or wife) and children must also be covered by OSHC unless you are all covered by a separate healthcare arrangement

If you decide that your chosen OSHC is too expensive or doesn’t cover what you want, you can switch to a different insurance provider, as long as your cover with them matches the length of your visa and that of any visas held by your family.

Are there any exceptions to needing OSHC?

There are exceptions to the requirement for international students to have OSHC, but only for students visiting from certain countries who meet the requirements. The Australian Department of Home Affairs advises that there are three specific exceptions, and that you will not need OSHC if you are a:

1. Norwegian student covered by the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme.
2. Swedish student covered by Kammarkollegiet.
3. Belgian student covered under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia.

The reason for this is that these specific countries have a reciprocal healthcare agreement with Australia that allows eligible visiting students to be treated by the Australian public health system (Medicare). This arrangement is particular to these three countries, and students visiting from other places will still need OSHC.

How do Canstar’s OSHC Star Ratings and Awards work?

Canstar’s Overseas Student Health Cover and Working Visa Health Cover Star Ratings and Awards use a sophisticated and unique ratings methodology that compares both cost and features across health insurance policies offered to international residents who are in Australia to study or on a working visa. The highest Star Rating possible is a Five Star Rating

What does OSHC insurance cover?

Overseas student health cover (OSHC) or insurance will help cover the costs of medical treatment if you need it while you are in Australia, such as seeing a doctor, going to hospital, pathology tests, pharmacy medicines, and riding in an ambulance to hospital.

The OSHC health policies that Canstar researches and rates are almost identical, because they must cover many medical services. But each policy has a different cost, and some providers may offer different amounts of cover for certain things. Likewise, some providers also offer extra benefits such as repatriation cover to help you go home if you have a medical emergency.

Per the OSHC Deed, a document set out by the Australian Government to cover the rules of OSHC, all policies must pay benefits for:

• out-of-hospital medical services (e.g. seeing a doctor or GP)
• 100% of Medicare Benefits Sschedule (MBS) fee for in-hospital medical services (e.g. surgery, treatment by a doctor)
• public hospital services (e.g. shared ward accommodation, post-operative services, emergency department charges)
• private hospital services (varies depending if prior contractual arrangement have been made with your OSHC insurance provider)
• some surgically implanted prosthetic devices (e.g. joint replacement surgery)
• pharmacy medicines up to $50 per medicine, with a minimum total benefit limit of $500/year for a single person – or $1000/year for a family (prior to July 2022, the minimum total benefit was $300/ year for a single person and $600/year for a family). This means you still pay part of the cost of most prescription medicines.
• ambulance services.

Who offers OSHC?

These are the insurance providers currently listed on Canstar’s database and rated for the 2023 Overseas Student Health Cover and Working Visa Health Cover Star Ratings:

• Ahm
• Allianz
• Bupa
• CBHS
• Medibank
• nib.

How do you buy OSHC insurance?

You can buy your OSHC insurance through your educational institution or through migration agents and education agents acting on behalf of your institution. Otherwise, you can also buy it online on an insurance provider’s website. You can choose your own OSHC provider, even if your university or school has a preferred provider that’s recommended.

Can I transfer or change OSHC companies?

You can transfer to a different OSHC insurance provider anytime. If you paid in advance for your OSHC, you can get a refund, but you may have to pay a refund processing fee.

You should buy a new OSHC insurance policy before you can get a refund from your previous OSHC provider, if it’s a requirement that you have insurance for the whole time you are in Australia on a student visa (as it is for most international students). You should not have to serve waiting periods again after you change OSHC providers if you switch without a gap in your cover.

If it’s a condition of your student visa that you have relevant OSHC and you allow it to lapse, this could lead to your student visa being cancelled.

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