Private Health Insurance
If you are on a provisional or temporary visa, you must take out private health insurance to cover any medical and hospital expenses you may incur.
Permanent residents may also decide to pay for private health insurance. This provides access to facilities like your choice of hospital and surgeons, dentists, opticians, and other specialist services at subsidised rates.
There are 2 types of private health insurance:
- Hospital policies that cover you when you go to hospital
- General treatment policies, sometimes known as ancillary or extra cover, that cover treatment like dental and physiotherapy
Most health funds offer combined policies that cover both hospital and general treatment services.
There are a number of private health cover insurance companies in Australia like Medibank and Bupa. The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman can give you more information.
You can find more information at these websites: