Welcome to OSHC Compare !
OSHC is a product designed to assist international students meet the costs of medical treatment they may need while studying in Australia. It has been mandated by the Australian government that all international students in Australia, with a few exceptions, must have an OSHC policy for the duration of their Student Visa.
Primarily, OSHC provides for payments up to the current Medical Benefits Schedule. Essentially, this means that international students receive similar medical cover to Australian residents under their OSHC policies. The cover is base-level cover only.
The Australian medical landscape has two streams, public and private. Public healthcare is generally provided free of charge to Australians although more and more medical practitioners are pricing their services above the MBS, meaning a “gap” fee will need to be paid. In the private system, doctors essentially charge what the market will pay. As you would expect, generally service is better in the private health system. Having said that, for the most part, the private health system uses the same facilities as the public health system – in Australia going private is usually a choice related to access to medical personnel, rather than gaining access to medical facilities.
Separate health insurance, over and above OSHC, can be entered into in order to cover the cost of using the private health system. It should be noted that more and more, private health fund rebates do not cover the private medical practitioners’ fees, so there will likely be out of pocket expenses, even with private health insurance on top of OSHC cover.
At a minimum, OSHC policies must cover the following:
- the benefit amount listed in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fee for out-of-hospital medical services (for example, a general practitioner)
- 100 per cent of the MBS fee for in-patient medical services (for example, surgery)
- public hospital shared ward accommodation
- private hospital shared ward accommodation (only for hospitals that have contractual arrangements with the overseas student’s health insurer)
- day surgery accommodation
- some prosthetic devices
- pharmaceutical benefits up to $50 per pharmaceutical item to a maximum of $300 a year for a single membership ($600 for a family membership). Overseas students may face significant out of pocket costs if they do not have appropriate coverage for treatment with pharmaceuticals, particularly oncology (cancer) treatment.
OSHC policies cannot cover the following expenses:
- arranged before coming to Australia
- needed while travelling to or from Australia
- transportation of an overseas student or dependent into or out of Australia for any reason
- covered by provisions for compensation and damages.
Students must obtain OSHC cover for the duration of their proposed student visa. If you extend your visa, you must renew your OSHC policy
Student Visa Requirement
The Australian Government through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship requires all holders of a Student Visa to maintain OSHC during their stay in Australia.
It is a visa requirement that from 1 July 2010, students must obtain OSHC for the proposed duration of their student visa. If an overseas student extends the length of their student visa, they must renew their OSHC policy.
Condition 8501
Maintaining OSHC is a mandatory condition of a Student Visa. Overseas students who do not maintain their OSHC are at risk of having their visas cancelled.
Peace of mind
Medical treatment can be expensive. Overseas students are not eligible for Medicare (the public health insurance system for Australian Residents). Without access to Medicare, overseas students may have difficulty paying for medical treatment. In most cases, hospital treatment will cost more than $1500 per day.
OSHC and COVID-19
OSHC includes cover for Coronavirus (COVID-19) related illnesses, principally “Lung and chest”, “Kidney and bladder” and “Dialysis for chronic kidney failure” clinical categories. International students who are stranded in Australia, due to mandated travel restrictions put in place by the Australian Government in response to the global pandemic, are recommended to contact their private health insurer for further assistance to ensure continuity of cover during this time. For more information see the Department of Health.
Happy blogging!
OSHC Compare Team
For additional information, please visit: www.oshccompare.com
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