7 Most Important Terms to Consider for Australia Health Insurance Plan

Do you always feel “tumbling down the rabbit hole” because of the complex terms involved whenever you need a new or extend your health insurance plan?

Well, relax. We have got you covered in this post.

Australia requires you to have OSHC (overseas student health cover) for students and OVHC (overseas visitor health cover) for working and visitor visa categories.

Choosing the right overseas health insurance can be an intimidating process for aspiring & existing international students because it demands to figure out which policy is the best one.

Aspiring migrants who want to settle down in Australia also face the same issue with buying adequate health insurance (OVHC) to meet the Australian visa requirements.

Australia boasts one of the best health & medical facility across the world and thus; one must require to have the specific level of health insurance (OSHC and OVHC) for themselves as well as the family members for the entire duration of stay in Australia.

Among many others, the leading government-approved health providers are Ahm OSHC, Allianz OSHC, Bupa OSHC, Medibank OSHC, and Nib OSHC. ensures the best coverage against hefty medical and hospital accommodation bills that usually occurs due to some situations that we compiled in another blog.

Must Read: Why Overseas Visitor Health Cover is Essential to Live & Work in Australia?

Buying health insurance is a tricky deal to crack, to be honest. No one wants to regret their decision after investing the money. So, it is always recommended not to get overwhelmed with the information available in the market and ever think about the actual need before buying a policy.

This is attributed to a number of questions asked related to health or the use of medical terms that certainly gives a hard time to understand and make the buying process insanely confusing.

Besides, people often confuse “benefits” with “returns”. Even though health insurance is considered an investment, it is strictly limited to risk protection and not increasing your savings.

Are you also looking to buy the best overseas health cover and want to avoid the same consequences? You need not panic.

Let’s start with the 7 points that one must consider before buying an overseas health cover. Take a look!

1. Coverage: Are you among the ones who prefer to buy a overseas health insurance just because it’s less expensive? If yes, then you may have to rethink. One must not purchase a plan just because it is less costly but carefully measure the amount of coverage it offers.

Some of the incentives to ask the insurance provider are pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization, network hospitals, day-care services, free medical check-ups, maternity benefits, amount of money for claims, etc.

2. Premium: Before buying overseas health insurance, one must calculate the premium. Premium is the amount you are required to pay for your health insurance coverage, typically every month.

You need to decide how much you can afford to spend on your policy since each insurer has a different set of standards and assumptions to measure the premium amount, and if you fail to pay that amount you risk losing coverage.

3. Deductibles: A deductible is a specific amount that a policyholder pays each year towards the medical expenses before the insurance provider proceed to provide you with the benefits.

For example, you buy an annual $1000 deductible health cover and a hospital stay that will cost you $20,000. Yeah, you’d only be responsible for paying $1000, and the health plan will start paying the premiums for the remaining $19,000 as per the contract terms and conditions.

The primary purpose of having a deductible is to keep the premiums low through cost-sharing and reduce the number of small claims.

4. Waiting Periods: While purchasing an overseas health cover, one has to keep in mind the waiting period. All health cover plans come with a waiting period for pre-existing diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid, etc. It is a specific period that you need to cover before claiming any benefits in your insurance policy.

Generally, a waiting period of 2 to 4 years is a standard clause in the majority of the health policies. When you abide by this clause (i.e. serve your waiting period), you will never be denied for appropriate claims by the insurance companies.

Must Read: Know more about Waiting Period

5. Co-pay or Coinsurance:  Co-payments are the fixed amount of cost-sharing between the insurance provider and the policyholder for specific health benefits or drugs. For example, you purchase a policy for primary care doctors with $20 co-pay, and generic drugs with $10 co-pay. For those facilities, you have to pay specific fixed amounts regardless of the cost.

More often, people confuse co-pay with deductibles, but, they are entirely different terms. A co-pay is the fixed amount that you pay each time you get a particular type of health service. While a deductible is an amount that you pay annually before actually reaping the benefits of your health insurance cover.

6. Sum Insured: Sum Insured is the guaranteed amount of money an insurance company assures to pay when a claim is made. When choosing a ‘Sum Insured’, you need to consider your age, income levels and add-on covers in the policy as it also affects your premium amount. It is always advisable to take care of medical inflation in order to make the most of the sum insured.

7. Exclusions: Before purchasing the policy one must check the exclusions. Exclusions are the disease, situation or condition that is not covered by the insurance provider and those medical costs are totally upon the person. Exclusions can be either ‘permanent’ or ‘first year’. Permanent exclusions are never covered whereas the first year exclusions will be hidden from the second year.

Now that you are aware of these terms and before you leave us to buy one, why not compare multiple plans first at www.getmypolicy.online and be sure of making a right decision!

On GetMyPolicy.online, you can compare the plans from leading service providers in Australia and get the best quote, be it for 485 Visa, 489 Visa or student visa. Through this platform, you can purchase the overseas health insurance from Bupa (OVHC & OSHC), Allianz Global Assistance (OVHC & OSHC), Ahm (OSHC), Medibank (OSHC & OVHC), Nib (OSHC), Australia Unity (OVHC) and Iman (OVHC).

There are no hidden overheads, just the platform with the most accurate information and hassle-free buying process.

Start navigating now to get the best value at the least price!