A Guide to Know How 485 Visa Health Insurance Works

• byBudgetpolicy
• 2023-07-20

Are you a recent graduate international student staying in Australia on a 485 visa? Is your overseas student health cover expiring? You need to pull up your socks and get your feet running to buy 485 Visa health insurance.

Being a graduate student from Australia, you need a 485 visa to extend your stay to work or study further. For this, you will have to shift from Overseas Student Health Cover to Overseas Visitor Health Cover, or maybe a higher level of private health cover.

Without health insurance, your 485 visa will not be granted to you. Moreover, you need to keep yourself burden free from paying huge hospital bills, considering the expensive healthcare system.

Let us understand how 485 visa health insurance works.

What is a 485 visa?

With a 485 Temporary Graduate visa, you become eligible to stay in Australia for your further studies or work, after graduating from a renowned university. Your 485 visa can last upto five years, depending on your native place, qualification and reasons for extending stay.

You need to fulfil the following criteria for a 485 visa:

·         You must have had a student visa subclass 500, 570, 572, 573 or 574 in the last six months.

·         You must be under 50 years of age.

·         You must have had adequate health cover for the time of your student visa.

·         You must fulfil certain requirements laid down by the Australian Government.

Is there a need for health insurance with a 485 visa?

In the majority of the cases, yes you need health insurance for your 485 visa. To keep up with the minimum requirement, you will have to at least buy a basic OVHC policy, which covers the medical expenses of visitors visiting Australia. 

However, there is on exception, i.e., if your native place is associated with a reciprocal healthcare agreement with Australia, such as:

·         The United Kingdom

·         The Republic of Ireland

·         New Zealand

·         Sweden

·         The Netherlands

·         Finland

·         Belgium

·         Norway

·         Slovenia

·         Malta

·         Italy

Then you can continue staying in the country without health cover.

Private health insurance is said to be more convenient and provides you the choice of doctors and hospitals to get treatment. However, with Australia’s public health system, you still have better options and it is cheaper in terms of daily visits to doctors and hospitals.

In either way, you buy the cover that suits best your medical needs. Ensure you do not end up with the wrong health cover at any cost.

What is an ‘adequate’ health cover under the 485 visa rules?

To be qualified for a 485 visa, your health insurance cover must fulfil certain arrangements so that it easily covers:

·         Public hospital treatment, along with overnight accommodation and operation theatre fees.

·         Expenses of emergency medical treatment, which eventually leads to hospital accommodation.

·         Admitted patient care and post-operative services.

·         Surgically implanted prostheses.

·         Medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

·         Essential or emergency ambulance transport.

Do you know that a basic OVHC policy meets all health insurance requirements needed for the grant of a 485 visa? The health insurance requirements needed are laid down by the Department of Home Affairs, which is a part of the government of Australia.

Remember that majority of health funds provides higher tiers of health insurance inclusive of extra benefits, such as:

·         Treatment in a private hospital.

·         Your choice of doctor for the treatment.

·         No out-of-pocket payment or gap payment.

·         Extras benefits such as optical, dental, podiatry, psychiatric treatment, elective cosmetic treatments, physio, chiro, natural therapies, and more

What is the 8501 visa condition?

According to condition 8501, you “must have and maintain adequate health insurance for the whole of your stay in Australia”. It applies to 485 visas along with other temporary working visas and all student visas for Australia.

The 8501 condition is to ensure that people studying, working, or living in Australia on visas are at ease when paying for their medical expenses during the time of their stay.

Conclusion