Compare travel insurance for Australia

Getting the right travel insurance for your trip to Australia can give you the peace of mind to enjoy the following:

 

• Incredible forests, deserts and beaches

 

• Great tourism infrastructure 

 

• Fascinating history 

 

• Diverse culture  

 

Which makes it a great destination for a holiday, and if you’re planning to travel there to enjoy these wonderful things, it’s important to get the right travel insurance policy first. So you’ll have the peace of mind to focus on having a good time down under.

 

Having travel insurance can help you:

 

• Avoid paying thousands of pounds in medical expenses while on holiday

 

• Quickly get the treatment you need in an emergency

 

• Avoid paying to replace stolen or lost items  

 

• To get reimbursed for any disruption to your trip e.g. delayed or cancelled flights 

 

The UK and Australia have a reciprocal healthcare agreement known as Medicare, but it only covers essential emergency care. It can be risky to rely on this, as you never know what can happen. 

 

Finding the right travel insurance policy for your trip can be difficult. You can use PayingTooMuch to easily compare your travel insurance options for Australia, so you can spend more time planning your trip.

 

Travel insurance policies that are tailored to Australia usually cover the following: 

 

• Medical Expenses - This covers any non-emergency hospital fees and doctor visits while you’re on your trip. It also covers you if you need a prescription, dependent on the excess you choose as part of your policy. 

 

• Repatriation (sending someone back to their country) -If you get seriously ill or injured, you may need to be flown back to the UK. An air ambulance, or another type of medical escort, could set you back over £150,000.  

 

• Cancellation - If you’re unable to travel for a reason covered under your policy terms, this can help you cover any non-refundable costs. These reasons include a medical emergency, a work-related issue, a home emergency, extreme weather or a transport strike. Travelling to Australia can cost a lot of money, so having this cover can be crucial to not being thousands of pounds out of pocket if bad luck strikes.

 

• Baggage - You can cover the loss, damage and theft of your baggage and other personal items. As a trip to Australia always involves a long, and sometimes a multi-leg, flight, this can be important, as the risk of something happening to your bags is higher. 

 

• Travel Delays - If you miss a connection or if your flight is delayed, you could be compensated for booking additional accommodation. 

The UK and Australia have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RCHA)1, known as Medicare. You can enrol in Medicare, before or after your treatment, on the Australian government website². 

 

It’s important to remember that this is only designed to cover you for essential treatment in public hospitals, for example, if you broke your legs by falling down the stairs. The doctors will treat you so that you’re well enough to fly home.

 

But, if you need to have non-essential treatment (meaning you could wait until you get home) such as a consultation for a chronic illness, this won’t be covered. You would have to wait until you return home; even though you might feel that it’s urgent, it will unlikely meet the Medicare ‘urgent’ threshold.

 

Using the same example of breaking your leg, if you needed to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, this wouldn’t be covered. If your leg injury became so serious that you had to be flown back home for treatment, this wouldn’t be covered either. Australia has an excellent healthcare system, but treatment can be expensive if you:

 

• Aren’t an Australian citizen 

 

• Don’t have your own adequate health insurance policy

 

So ambulance trips and medical evacuations could lead to you having to pay tens of thousands, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds in medical costs. 

 

If you’re planning on using travel insurance provided by your bank, make sure to check the limit before travelling, as it may not be high enough to cover you. 

 

To help get the right travel insurance policy for your holiday, it’s important to declare any pre-existing conditions, no matter how small. Some parts of Australia can have quite harsh climates; think deserts, subtropical humidity, etc. If you plan to travel to the more remote parts of Australia, such as Cape York Peninsula or Tasmania, you’ll have to be wary of being potentially attacked by dangerous animals, such as scorpions or spiders.

 

Any one of these factors can trigger even the most minor, well-controlled pre-existing conditions. If you don’t declare one of them, your policy will likely be voided, and you won’t be able to claim.  

Most insurance policies for Australia won’t cover everything. It can be helpful to do your own research to make sure your policy covers everything you need. Reading your policy documents carefully before you buy can help you make sure it has everything you need for your upcoming trip.

 

Some of the examples of things that might not be covered are: 

 

• Flight cancellations - If your flight is cancelled, it’s usually your airline that has to pay you for any costs e.g. food, hotels etc.

 

• Alcohol/drug-related injuries - If any items are lost, or a medical emergency occurs due to intoxication, it’s unlikely they will be covered. 

 

• Undeclared pre-existing conditions - If someone with an undeclared pre-existing condition fell ill on the trip, they may not be covered by their insurance policy.

 

• Travelling against FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office) advice - If the UK government advises against travelling to Australia due to a potential danger to UK citizens, and you were to still travel, you wouldn’t be covered.

 

• Specialist activities - This can include high-risk activities such as skydiving, scuba diving and going on a cruise. To make sure you’re covered, you’d need to buy specialist insurance for high-risk sports, and cruise travel insurance, if you’re planning to go on a cruise.  

You can compare different travel insurance policies for Australia by:  

 

• Tailoring cover to your specific trip, or trips - For example, if you’re not doing any extreme sports, there is no need to include it. Another example can be finding a worldwide policy that excludes the USA; this can also make your policy cheaper.

 

• Find group policies – If you’re visiting Australia as part of a group, a family or group policy may work out to be cheaper. 

 

• Declare all pre-existing medical conditions – If you got injured or ill in Australia and didn’t declare a pre-existing condition, your policy may be invalidated. 

 

• Considering an Annual Multi-Trip (AMT) policy - If you plan to travel more than twice in a year, an AMT policy may work out cheaper than Single Trip Insurance for you. But there are limits to these policies, including age, so it’s important to check policy documents if you’re considering this option.  

 

• Find policies that are compatible with Medicare – Some insurers will waive your policy excess charge if you use Medicare to subsidise your treatment.  

 

 

Make sure you find the right travel insurance policy for you by comparing quotes now. 

¹https://www.timeout.com/australia/news/australia-is-officially-the-worlds-fifth-best-tourism-destination-in-2024-heres-what-sets-it-apart-052724

 

²https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/australia/health  

 

³https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/reciprocal-health-care-agreements-visiting-from-united-kingdom?context=22481