Health insurance in Australia

In Australia, healthcare is public. Citizens pay taxes (around 1.5% ends up in the health system) and in this way Australians are entitled to free basic assistance, so hospitalization and general medical visits are included or refunded by the health insurance, known as Medicare.

Everything else is paid, like the ambulance, dentist and optician. For this reason, many Australians subscribe to private insurance policies, which gives them the right to ambulance and other services, including specialist visits and even the optician and the dentist, depending on the coverage.

For those who are not residents in Australia there is not much choice: sooner or later if you are a visitor in Australia it is better (or in some cases required) to subscribe to health insurance. Actually, there is not much difference between one insurance and another, just choose the one which is the most convenient according to your visa and people covered by the same medical insurance.

Health insurance with a Working Holiday Visa

Once your Medicare expires (free health insurance valid for 6 months from your arrival, thanks to the international agreement between some countries and Australia) you have two options:

• Leave the country to take a holiday and come back, so in this way you are covered by Medicare for another 6 months.
• Contact us for an insurance policy from $48 per month.

Health insurance for students

Health insurance for OSHC students (Overseas Student Health Cover) is compulsory in order to apply for the student visa and the whole amount must be paid before requesting the visa. Here are some examples of prices for health insurance for students that include: GP services, hospitalization and ambulance.

• Single: $38 per month
• Couple: $45 per month
• Family: $317 per month

Just Australia represents a series of Australian insurance companies. So, you can directly subscribe to health insurance with us depending on your budget, time and level of coverage. Moreover, you can choose from single, partner or family according to your household in Australia.

Health insurance for a sponsored visa

Those who have a 457 visa hired by an Australian employer, must be provided with health coverage. It is one of the fundamental conditions of obtaining this visa.

Here are the prices of the insurance for working holiday and sponsor visas, which include: GP services, hospitalization and ambulance.

• Single: $107 per month
• Couple: $214 per month
• Family. $236 per month

Australian health insurance extras

Dental, optical and physiotherapy are not included in any insurance. Only Medicare for working holiday visas includes ophthalmologist visits in some centers or requires a partial payment for the visit, but the rest is not covered by Medicare.

The only option is to take out an extra insurance policy, but it doesn’t entitle you to a refund from day one. Also in Australia there is the so-called “waiting period”: from a minimum of two months to visit the eye doctor to one year for a dental operation. Here is an example of the most popular extra insurance prices from $70 per month that gives you the right to the following repayments per year:

• General dentist: unlimited
• Dental surgery: up to $1,000
• Ophthalmologist: up to $340
• Physiotherapist: up to $700