OSHC for students with children: cover for dependants under the current Deed
What the OSHC Deed requires when a student brings dependant children, how the insured group categories work, and what actually changes for your family.
A student arriving with children faces a version of OSHC that looks structurally different from the single-student product, and the difference is not cosmetic. Under the OSHC Deed commencing 1 July 2025 a family policy is one policy in a defined category, and the category determines how the benefits are calculated.
This article explains what the Deed requires for dependants, which category you are in, and what changes when your family composition changes.
Who counts as a dependant
The Deed definitions are precise, and they matter because they decide who goes on the policy.
- Dependant Child — a child, adopted child or step-child who is an eligible family member for the purposes of a Student visa.
- Partner — a spouse or de facto partner who is an eligible family member for the purposes of a Student visa.
- Dependant — a Partner plus any Dependant Children.
The operative phrase in every definition is “eligible family member for the purposes of a Student visa”. Eligibility is an immigration test, not a household test. Who qualifies is determined by the Student visa (subclass 500) requirements and by the visa grant itself — not by who lives with you or who you support.
This is the single most important thing to get right before you buy. A child who is not an eligible family member for your visa is not a Dependant Child for OSHC purposes, and including or excluding them on the policy will not match what is on your visa.
The four categories, and which one you are
The Deed defines exactly four Insured Group categories:
| Category | Who is covered |
|---|---|
| (a) | The Overseas Student only |
| (b) | The Overseas Student and their Partner |
| (c) | The Overseas Student and their Dependant Children |
| (d) | The Overseas Student, a Partner and their Dependant Children |
Two structural points catch new students out:
- Category (c) is student plus dependant children, without a partner. If you have children and no partner, (c) is your category.
- Children plus a partner is category (d) — a single policy, not two policies stapled together. You cannot hold (b) and (c) separately to get the same result.
Clause 8.1 makes the structure explicit: “one premium will apply for each Insured Group, for each OSHC product.” You are buying a policy in a category, not a bundle of individual policies. Our single vs family guide covers the category structure and pricing in more detail.
What your children are actually covered for
The good news is that the statutory minimum does not get watered down for dependants. Schedule 1 of the Deed sets the base coverage rates, and they apply across the insured group:
| Base coverage | Statutory rate |
|---|---|
| Ambulance services | 100% of the ambulance charge (when medically necessary) |
| Pharmaceutical items | Amount above the PBS co-payment, up to $50 per item |
| Out-of-hospital medical services | 85% of the MBS fee |
| In-hospital medical services | 100% of the MBS fee |
| Public hospital services | 100% of the charges raised by the public hospital |
| Private hospital services | Per the insurer’s hospital contract, or the applicable minimum |
One figure does change with the category, and it is worth knowing: Schedule 1 sets a pharmaceutical minimum of $500 per calendar year for an Overseas Student alone, and $1,000 per calendar year for each of the other Insured Group categories — (b), (c) and (d). The per-item figure stays at $50. So a family policy carries a higher statutory PBS minimum than a single policy.
Waiting periods for your children
Waiting periods are set in Schedule 4 of the Deed, and they are maximums measured from the OSHC start date:
| Treatment | Maximum waiting period |
|---|---|
| Out-of-hospital services in the MBS groups named in row (a) | Nil |
| Emergency Treatment | Nil |
| Psychiatric hospital treatment (except emergency) | 2 months |
| Hospital treatment for a pre-existing condition | 12 months |
| Pregnancy-related (products under 2 years) | 12 months |
| Any other Schedule 1 service not listed in Schedule 4 | 2 months |
The row (a) nil is the one most often misread. It applies to a named list of MBS groups — Group A1, Group A2, sub-groups 2 and 10 of Group A7, Group A22, Group A23, sub-groups 1 and 2 of Group A40, and Group A46 — not to every outpatient service. Everything else in Schedule 1 that is not listed falls under the 2-month cap in row (h).
Two practical points for a family:
- Waiting periods are per-member, and they run from the OSHC start date. If children join the policy later, ask the insurer directly when their cover commences and which waiting periods apply to them. The Deed does not prescribe the commercial mechanics of a mid-term addition.
- Served waiting periods are creditable. “A waiting period served under a previous OSHC Product will be off set against, or credited towards, the waiting period of a new OSHC Product, provided there is continuous cover.”
When your family changes
Family composition changes while you are in Australia, and the Department of Health’s OSHC fact sheet is blunt about the consequence: “If this changes while you are in Australia, you must change the policy to match.”
In practice that means:
- Partner arrives or departs — your category changes and the policy must follow.
- A child joins or leaves — same.
- A new child is born in Australia — the visa must add the child as an eligible family member before the policy can include them. The child’s immigration status, not their birthdate, governs whether they can be covered.
Any of these changes interacts with the visa itself. If your visa changes first and the policy does not follow, you have a compliance gap; if the policy changes first and the visa does not, the policy does not match the visa. Keep the two in step. Our article on the visa date mismatch covers this failure mode in detail.
Key takeaways
- Eligibility for your visa decides who is a dependant, not your household arrangement.
- Four categories exist; children without a partner is (c), children with a partner is (d) — one policy, not two.
- The statutory cover floor is identical across categories. Your children are not covered less.
- The PBS minimum rises to $1,000 a year for family categories, from $500 for a single student.
- Waiting periods are caps, and served waits are credited on continuous cover. Ask about mid-term additions specifically.
- A change in family means a change in policy — and a change in the visa first.
If you are pricing this for your family, compare the insurers on the comparison page or get a family quote for your exact dates and category on the quote page.
Sources
- OSHC Deed commencing 1 July 2025 (PDF) — clause 8 (premiums), Schedule 1 (base coverage and the pharmaceutical minimum), Schedule 4 (waiting periods and the offset rule), and the definitions of Insured Group, Dependant, Partner and Dependant Child.
- Department of Health — OSHC fact sheet
- Private Health Insurance Ombudsman — Overseas Student Health Cover
- Department of Home Affairs — Student visa (subclass 500)
Information is current as at 1 October 2026. This is general information, not personal advice, and it does not consider your personal circumstances. CompareOSHC is not an insurer or underwriter. We may receive a commission from insurers; commissions do not influence our comparisons.