The 417 and 462 visas are both types of working holiday visas, allowing eligible young adults to travel and work in Australia for one or two years. Both let people aged 18 to 30 live and work in Australia for 12 months. Both allow you to extend your stay for another 12 months under certain conditions, including completing 3 months of specified work during your first 12 months.
Whether you get the 417 or 462 visa is based on what country you're applying from. There are also some additional requirements for the 462 visa, which makes it a bit harder to apply for. Here's a bit more detail on the differences between the two:
For more information on the visas themselves, check the department of immigrations pages on the 417 visa and the 462 visa.
To hold a working holiday visa, you need to satisfy condition 8501, which says "you must have and maintain adequate health insurance for the whole of your stay in Australia". There are two ways that you can sort this out:
Compare OVHC here to find a policy that will satisfy the visa condition. OVHC will cover you for health and medical costs while you're in Australia. There are very basic policies or very comprehensive ones to suit every budget and requirement.
If your home country has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Australia, you'll have access to some services under Australia's pblic health care system, Medicare. This will generally only cover emergency medical treatment, but won't pay for ambulance, dental, funeral, optical, or any treatment that isn't immediately necessary.
More of the 417 visa countries have agreements with Australia, but it's not a perfect match. Similarly, there's at least one agreement on the list of 462 visas (at the time of writing, with Slovenia). My point is, check the list of RHCA countries to be 100% sure.
Insurance can be confusing when you first arrive in Australia but only health insurance is compulsory – others can be good to have depending on your situation.
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