Home Affairs has published guidance on adequate health insurance, and it names a minimum benefit of AUD 1,000,000

The Department has published a page, Adequate health insurance for visa holders, together with a factsheet of the same name and a second document listing the visas that carry condition 8501. The page records that it was last updated on 25 September 2026.

The minimum benefit

The page states that to comply with the minimum level of health insurance, the per-person, per-annum benefit payable under your private health insurance policy must not be less than AUD1,000,000.

On what the policy should cover, the factsheet is expressed as a recommendation rather than a rule. It says that at a minimum, it is recommended that a policy cover out-of-hospital medical services, hospital treatment in a public or private hospital, medical devices and human tissue products, pharmaceuticals including prescription medicines, and ambulance services including inter-hospital transfers and emergency treatment.

Which visas carry condition 8501

Condition 8501 in Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994 provides that the holder must maintain adequate arrangements for health insurance while the holder is in Australia. The Department's list marks each subclass as mandatory or discretionary, and explains that where the condition is mandatory it applies to the visa as a matter of law, and where it is discretionary it will only apply to the visa where the delegate has exercised their discretion to apply it.

Visas subject to condition 8501, as listed by the Department

How it applies	Subclasses
Mandatory	403 Temporary Work (International Relations), 405 Investor Retirement, 407 Training, 482 Temporary Skill Shortage, 485 Temporary Graduate, 500 Student, 590 Student Guardian, 870 Sponsored Parent
Discretionary	408 Temporary Activity, 410 Retirement, 417 Working Holiday, 461 New Zealand Citizen Family Relationship, 462 Work and Holiday, 600 Visitor (Tourist), 771 Transit
Listed without a marking	Bridging visa A 010, Bridging visa B 020, Bridging visa C 030, Bridging visa E 050

Subclasses 405 and 410 are marked as closed to new applicants. The Department notes that condition 8501 can only be imposed on a Visitor visa granted in certain streams or in certain circumstances.

Students

The factsheet states that a subclass 500 visa will be subject to condition 8501 and that the holder must have Overseas Student Health Cover while in Australia. The page adds that Overseas Student Health Cover products commonly provide the minimum level of private health insurance recommended.

Two practical points from the Department's own text

The first is that a policy can fail the condition on its face. The page records that Overseas Student Health Cover and Overseas Visitor Health Cover products may include information notices stating whether the level of cover selected is sufficient to satisfy visa condition 8501. A policy carrying a notice that it does not satisfy the condition is evidence against the holder.

The second is waiting periods. The factsheet suggests buying a product whose maximum waiting periods are no higher than those set for Overseas Student Health Cover products: twelve months for pregnancy and birth related treatments, and none for policies of two years or more; twelve months for pre-existing conditions; two months for psychiatric treatment, rehabilitation or palliative care; and two months for all other treatments.

A visa holder can check whether condition 8501 is on their own visa through VEVO. If a condition 8501 question has arisen on a visa we hold the file for, notify us and we can identify what the Department has recorded.