Who provides visitors to Australia travel insurance?

Quick summary for busy readers:

• Most travel insurers in Australia only cover residents, so if you’re visiting from overseas, you’ll need either a policy from your home country or a specific visitors-to-Australia policy.
• Some visitors may already have access to Medicare through a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement between Australia and their home country, but this only covers a limited list of countries, and even then, it doesn’t include things like medical evacuation or cover for costs after you’ve left Australia, which is where travel insurance comes in.
• Visitors policies typically only cover medical treatment within Australia, and cover generally ends the moment you clear immigration on your way home.
• Common conditions include age restrictions, a waiting period on medical claims, and a requirement to buy your policy within a set number of days of arriving.

 

Whether you’re heading to Australia yourself or trying to sort out cover for friends or family coming to visit you, finding travel insurance as a non-resident here isn’t always straightforward. Most Australian insurers are built around covering residents, so visitors often assume their options are limited. They’re not necessarily, you just need to know where to look.

Below we’ve covered what visitors-to-Australia travel insurance actually is, where you can buy it, and what it typically does and doesn’t cover.

What is visitors to Australia travel insurance?

Visitors to Australia travel insurance is a policy designed specifically for people who aren’t Australian citizens or residents but need cover for time spent in the country. It’s a genuinely different product to standard travel insurance, since most Australian insurers won’t sell a regular policy to someone who doesn’t live here.

You generally have two options. You can buy a policy from an insurer in your home country before you travel, which is often the simpler route if your usual provider covers trips to Australia. Or you can buy Overseas Visitors Cover from one of the many Australian insurers who offer it specifically to non-residents.

Just be aware that this kind of policy usually comes with a few conditions that don’t apply to standard travel insurance:

• Cover generally starts from your flight into Australia and continues while you’re here, but it stops once you clear immigration on your way out, not after you’ve landed back home.
• Age restrictions can apply, so it’s worth checking the upper age limit before you assume you’re covered.
• All or most of your trip needs to be spent in Australia to qualify, this isn’t cover for a broader multi-country trip that happens to include a stopover here.
• Medical claims can be subject to a waiting period, so it’s not necessarily immediate cover from day one.
• You’ll usually need to buy the policy within a specified time frame of landing here, so it’s not something you can leave and sort out later in your trip.

Do I need visitors to Australia travel insurance?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it depends on where you’re from, but even then, the answer is still usually yes.

Visitors from certain countries can access Medicare through a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement between their home country and Australia. Currently, this covers visitors from Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. If you’re eligible, Medicare will cover medically necessary treatment while you’re here.

But – and this is a big but – it won’t help with medical evacuation, cover for treatment once you’ve left Australia, or non-medical costs like cancellations or lost luggage. That’s the gap visitors travel insurance will fill, and why we’d recommend it regardless of being Medicare-eligible.

And if you’re not from one of those eligible countries, you won’t have any automatic access to subsidised healthcare at all, which makes visitors travel insurance even more essential.

Where can I buy visitors to Australia travel insurance?

We’ve done the hard work for you and put together the Australian insurers that do offer Overseas Visitors Cover below:

What’s typically included (and excluded)?

Visitors to Australia travel insurance typically covers:

• Medical treatment within Australia. Cover for injury or illness, including hospital stays, surgery, dental treatment, prescription medication and doctor visits, while you’re in the country. Treatment outside Australia generally isn’t covered under this type of policy.
• Luggage and personal items. Cover if your belongings are lost, stolen or damaged during your trip.
• Personal liability. Cover if you’re found legally liable for injuring someone else or damaging their property while you’re here.
• Cancellation fees and lost deposits. Cover for the cost of rearranging or cancelling your trip due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness, an accident, or extreme weather.
• Rental vehicle excess. Cover for the excess payment on a rental car’s insurance if it’s involved in an accident or stolen while you’re driving it.

And visitors to Australia travel insurance typically excludes:

• Pre-existing medical conditions. These are commonly excluded by default, though some insurers may let you apply for specific conditions to be covered.
• Certain cancellations. Changing your mind about a trip isn’t covered, and neither are cancellations that fall outside the specific unforeseen circumstances listed in your policy.

Given how much these conditions and exclusions can vary between visitor policies specifically, it’s worth reading your chosen insurer’s Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) closely before you buy, rather than assuming all visitors policies are the same.