OSHC: health cover for international students in Australia
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Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) is a mandatory condition of the subclass 500. You must hold it for the entire length of your visa, from the day you arrive to the day the visa ends, not just for the length of your course. Budget roughly AUD 500 to 700 a year for a single policy, more for a couple or family.
What OSHC covers
| Covered | Partly covered | Not covered by a standard policy |
|---|---|---|
| GP visits | Prescription medicines (capped per item and per year) | Dental |
| Public hospital treatment as a public patient | Some emergency ambulance | Optical |
| Scheduled surgery in a public hospital | Physiotherapy and other allied health | |
| Limited private hospital cover | Elective cosmetic procedures | |
| Ambulance in most states | Anything before a waiting period ends |
Providers include Bupa, Medibank, Allianz Care, nib, ahm, and CBHS. Your university usually has a preferred provider that it can arrange with your enrolment, but you are free to buy your own policy and switch later.
Waiting periods to know about
- Pre-existing conditions: up to 12 months before the policy will pay for treatment related to a condition you had when you took out the cover.
- Pregnancy: a 12-month wait on most policies. If you are planning a family during your studies, factor this in early.
- Major dental and optical: only on higher tiers, and usually with their own waiting periods.
The visa trap: never let it lapse
Condition 8501 requires continuous cover. If there is a gap, even a few days between one policy ending and the next starting, you have breached a visa condition, and that can be raised against you when you apply for a 485 or any later visa.
Two rules keep you safe:
- Buy cover that ends after your expected visa end date, not on your course end date. Visas usually run a month or two past the course.
- If you apply for another student visa, extend or re-buy your OSHC first, so the new policy is already in place when the new visa is granted. See proving you can afford it for the funds evidence.
Family members on your visa
If you are exempt and include a partner or children in your student visa application (most applicants can no longer include family from 2 October 2026), they must be on an OSHC policy too. Cover is priced as single, couple, single-parent family, or family, and the jump from single to family is significant, often two to three times the single premium. Include it in your financial capacity evidence.
Getting money back
If you leave Australia before your policy ends, finish your course early, or move onto a visa that gives you Medicare access (for example some partner or skilled visas), you can usually claim a pro-rata refund for the unused months. Keep the policy documents and apply to the provider directly.
Choosing a policy
The cheapest compliant policy meets the visa condition, and for a healthy single student that is often enough. Consider a mid tier if you wear glasses, expect dental work, or want shorter waiting periods. Compare the single-policy annual premium, the pharmaceutical cap, and whether ambulance is included in your state before you pick.