Consultation Paper - Improving the Overseas Student Health Cover Program - May 2024

Overview

Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) is health insurance specifically for overseas students and their dependents whilst they are in Australia. It includes coverage for medical and hospital care, ambulance services, and some pharmaceutical items.

The Department of Health administers the Deed for the Provision of Overseas Student Health Cover. The Deed sets out the conditions in which registered Australian private health insurers signed to the Deed must comply with to offer OSHC products and policies. 

Why your views matter

The Department of Health is requesting input from stakeholders to assist with improving the Overseas Student Health Cover program. Three consultation areas are outlined in the Issues Paper: 

1. Publication of product information on privatehealth.gov.au website using templates similar to Private Health Insurance Statements to allow consumers to more easily compare coverage.
    
2. Caps on payments by insurers to third party agents for non-healthcare services to reduce the cost of these services to the consumer.
    
3. Removal or reduction in waiting period for pregnancy related care for some or all policies to enable better access to reproductive services.

The Issues Paper contains questions for consideration at the end of each section. These questions are intended as a guide. Submissions should not be limited to responses to these questions.

The Department welcomes all feedback, including additional measures to address issues detailed in this paper.

How To Respond:

Please submit your response via email: OSHC@health.gov.au

To continue to support stakeholder engagement, the Department intends to publish responses. Respondents are asked to clearly identify specific elements of the response which are considered confidential and not for publication, as well as the reasons the specific elements are considered confidential. Confidential feedback may still be subject to access under freedom of information laws. The freedom of information process includes consultation with a respondent prior to a decision about the release of information.