Firstly, knowing that you have a choice from whom you get your OSHC cover while studying in Australia is essential. You are not obliged to use the OSHC provider your educational institution recommends.
OSHC is a product designed to assist international students in meeting the costs of medical treatment they may need while studying in Australia. The Australian government has mandated that all international students in Australia, with a few exceptions, must have an OSHC policy for the duration of their Student Visa.
Primarily, OSHC provides for payments up to the current Medical Benefits Schedule. This means that international students receive similar medical cover to Australian residents under their OSHC policies. The cover is the base-level cover only.
The Australian medical landscape has two streams, public and private. Public healthcare is generally provided accessible to Australians. However, more and more medical practitioners are pricing their services above the MBS, meaning a “gap” fee will need to be paid. In the private system, doctors essentially charge what the market will bear. As you would expect, generally, service is better in the private health system. For the most part, the private health system uses the same facilities as the public health system – in Australia, going private is usually a choice related to access to medical personnel rather than gaining access to medical facilities.
Separate health insurance can be entered into over and above OSHC to cover the cost of using the private health system. It should be noted that more and more, private health fund rebates do not cover the private medical practitioners’ fees, so there will likely be out-of-pocket expenses, even with private health insurance on top of OSHC cove.