International students arriving in Australia must obtain health insurance coverage called Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) for the entirety of their stay in this country.
This insurance covers visits to general practitioners, hospital treatments, transportation by ambulance and certain medications.
The Department of Immigration specifies that a dependent of an international student, including a partner or child, must also obtain similar coverage.
But what happens if a holder or their dependent encounters an unexpected change of health circumstances and needed to switch insurance coverage?
Migration agent Miguel Mudbidri told SBS Spanish that just like other forms of health insurance coverage, OSHC has a waiting period associated with certain diseases or medical conditions.
In the case of an international student who is already in Australia and pregnant, the insurance would not cover her delivery or check-ups because her condition would most likely not meet the requirements of the waiting period.
"It's usually twelve months, the insurance will not cover students who have arrived in Australia until twelve months later," said Mr Mudbidri said.
Mr Mudbidri recommended that international students be "well informed about the conditions" of their OSHC insurance and the waiting periods that apply to coverage.
The immigration agent said that to change insurance, the waiting period would also be respected by a new provider of this insurance.
"The change of insurer is not a problem because the new insurer will respect the twelve months as long as the new insurer is told that he has had past insurance," Mr Mudbidri said.
"What does matter is that if the student has been a day without OSHC insurance, his waiting period could be affected."
The providers of OSHC insurance offer a range of coverage from mandatory minimum coverage to an integral coverage.
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