Residents of certain countries may be eligible for access to medicare through Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RACs). If you visit any of the countries on this page and need urgent or immediate medical treatment, it will be provided at a reduced cost or, in some cases, free of charge. If you are looking for foreign student health insurance, you can compare insurance options with our interactive tool here. You need to make sure that you have adequate travel and health insurance to cover your stay in these places. Irish visitors must reside in Ireland for more than 6 months prior to their trip to Australia and will need a valid Irish passport or a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) with the initials IE if you are not Irish. For this reason, international visitors to Australia must take out health insurance prior to arrival, unless their country has a reciprocal health agreement with Australia. Travel insurance and foreign visitor health insurance (OVHC) can help meet the cost of medical treatment in Australia. For these reasons, it is always an option for a person from a country with a mutual health agreement to take off OVHC during their stay in Australia: Maltese visitors need a valid Maltese passport and a valid Maltese identity card. .