Who do you want cover for?
What you select here will determine which policies we show you: Singles, Couples, Single parents, or Family health cover.
Couples
Generally the cost of a Couples policy is twice that of a Singles policy so you usually don’t save money by getting one. You may also have different needs to your partner, with one of you wanting more cover than the other, so separate policies may save you money.
Couples with kids
If you have kids it’s a good idea to get a policy with your partner and children. Family policies usually cost the same as Couples policies, so your kids are insured for free.
Single parents
Choose a Single parent policy by selecting one adult and the number of dependent children.
Some health funds will provide cover for children aged 18 to 24 under your Family policy, while others will ask you to switch to a different type of Family policy at a higher premium. If your children are studying full-time they can usually stay on your normal Family policy until they’re at least 21.
To be covered under your policy, your children need to be living at home, and not be married or in a de facto relationship. Conditions differ between funds, so it’s best to check with a fund directly.
There are two issues to consider here:
Cover for pregnancy and birth-related services
You don’t need to select children to get cover for in-hospital pregnancy and birth-related services. The important thing to note is that health funds impose a 12-month waiting period before you can claim for giving birth, and you need to serve this waiting period even if your baby comes earlier than expected. So to be covered, you need to sign up for insurance well ahead of becoming pregnant.
Cover for your baby once it’s born
If you want your child to have hospital insurance from the moment they’re born, you need to have them insured under a Family policy generally one to three months before they’re born, but some health funds require up to 12 months, so check with them directly.
So, will your baby need hospital insurance straight away? If you have a normal birth and your baby is healthy, they usually won’t get admitted to hospital and you may not need cover for it. But if your baby is born early, has any health issues or you have twins, for example, they may get admitted to the special care nursery or intensive care. This can cost thousands of dollars without cover. If you wish to be covered for this scenario, we recommend you select one child in the tool above so you see results for Family policies.
Where do you live?
We need to know where you live because it affects the cost of insurance.
Do you want to include the government rebate in your premium?
To calculate your premium, we'll ask you questions about your:
- Income
- Age
- Tax status
CHOICE tip: If your income is unpredictable (e.g. you’re a contractor), you may prefer not to apply the rebate to the policy premium. Your rebate can be claimed back on your annual tax return instead.
The federal government provides many Australians with a private health insurance rebate based on their income and age. It’s available for singles earning up to $158,001 and families earning up to $316,001.
The rebate will be applied to your policy premium only – the Lifetime Health Cover loading is an amount you pay on top of the premium.
The loading is a government initiative to encourage people to take out private health insurance earlier in life. If you take out insurance after the age of 31, you could pay an extra 2% on top of your hospital premium for each year you didn’t have private health insurance after 31.
In which age range is the oldest person to be covered by the policy?
A higher rebate is available for Australians over the age of 65, depending on their income.
What's your household type?
This question is not about whether you're looking for a Single, Couple or Family health insurance policy, but how the tax department classifies your household.
For families with more than one dependent child, the government will raise the income threshold by $1500 for each child after the first. This means you can earn more before your rebate is reduced.
What's your expected household income?
This determines your rebate tier. Remember, if you're classified as single for tax purposes, then 'household income' refers to you only.
If you choose an income range that results in a lower rebate than you’re entitled to, you’ll receive a tax offset through your tax return at the end of the financial year.
If you choose an income range that results in a higher rebate than you’re entitled to, you’ll incur a tax liability through your tax return at the end of the financial year, which could give you a tax debt. There are no penalties for estimating incorrectly.
Your private health insurer will give you a statement at the end of the financial year to help you complete your tax return.
Do you want to see restricted membership funds?
If you or a family member have ever been employed in one of the following industries you may be eligible for a restricted membership health fund:
- Education
- Health
- Defence
- Police and emergency services
- Transport and energy
- Members of any union
- Banking groups
These health funds are restricted to people in specific industry groups, like teachers, police or the military, and their families.
They usually offer good policies at a lower premium than open membership funds, especially if you’re after top cover with no excess.
What type of cover do you want?
Hospital insurance
Can cover you for ambulance, as well as thousands of procedures, services and treatments in a hospital, like:
- Heart surgery
- Having a baby
- Hip or knee replacement
Extras
Includes things outside of hospital, like:
- Dental visits
- Glasses
- Physiotherapy
CHOICE tip: Not all big funds like Medibank and NIB have combined policies at all cover levels. Compare hospital and extras policies separately to see more results and find better value.
Hospital insurance is useful for those health problems that you can’t predict. You could get treatment in a public hospital without having private health insurance, and it might be free, but the waiting lists can be very long and you won’t be able to choose your own doctor or specialist.
Extras insurance is different to other insurance. Think of it as a way to budget for therapies and services that you might already need or be paying for, such as dental and optical. It’s only useful if you claim back more than you spend on premiums (the premium is the cost of your insurance).
If you’re after insurance just for tax reasons, Hospital insurance (on its own or in a Combined policy) is the one you need to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge or Lifetime Health Cover loading.
Many funds sell hospital and extras together as a combined or packaged policy. But you don’t have to buy hospital and extras from the same fund, and in fact you’re less likely to get good value by choosing a package deal.
What kind of hospital insurance do you want?
Which treatments do you want private hospital cover for?
We've pre-checked treatments included in most policies to save you time
Excess and co-payment
To get a discount on your premium, you can choose to pay:
- an excess – a contribution towards each hospital stay
- a co-payment – a contribution towards each day in hospital
This contribution is capped. So, for example, you’ll never pay more than $500 a year (or $1000 for a family) in excess, no matter how many times you go to hospital that year.
CHOICE tip: If you want insurance just for tax reasons, or don’t intend to make a claim, select Yes to this question to see more policy options and find better value.
What extras cover do you need?
Extras insurance is different to other insurance. Think of it as a way to budget for therapies and services that you might already need or be paying for.
CHOICE tip: Only choose treatments you definitely need, otherwise you’ll be paying for something you don’t use.
How much will you use extras?
We'll match you with policies that suit how often you're likely to use your chosen extras.
CHOICE tip: Most people rarely use all the benefits they’re paying for and would be better off choosing low.
Your Results
These are the policies we found that match your needs.
Printing tips
- Print in landscape mode for more than 5 products
- Use the up/down arrows to hide parts of the table you don't need
- Reduce print scale down to 50% to print up to 10 products
- Use the right arrow to display the next 10 products for printing
- 'Show more' sections within the table print automatically, even if hidden
- Make sure the table has completely loaded before you print
About the results
We get our data from the comprehensive private health database at Data.gov.au.
Check policy details with your fund before you buy.
Yes. All funds have to follow the same rules, so it’s not risky to switch to a smaller fund.
There are a couple of reasons why your preferred fund might not show up in the results.
Most likely the fund doesn’t offer a policy that meets your needs based on your selections. Try going through the questions again and selecting fewer options.
Combined policies
If you selected both hospital and extras, you may find your fund doesn’t offer combined policies. We recommend buying hospital and extras separately as it often means you get a better deal.
Use your policy’s Private Health Information Statement (PHIS) to compare. You should have been sent this by your health fund around tax time. If you don’t have it, ask your fund.