Health Insurance

nib of course! But really, it's important you compare health insurance policies to see what's best for you. When comparing it's not always about price. Be sure to review the policy waiting periods, excess, annual limits and decide if you want both Hospital and Extras cover. We've created a guide to finding the best cover for you over at The Check Up.

In Australia, we have the public healthcare system (Medicare), which provides access to free or low-cost care for certain health issues. If your medical condition isn't life threatening however, you may experience long waiting periods and you won't be able to choose your doctor or hospital. By having private health insurance, you are able to be treated as a private patient, avoid public hospital waiting lists and choose your hospital and treating doctor. It also pays some or all of the costs for your hospital accommodation, theatre, doctor and specialist fees. If you have Extras cover, it helps cover the costs of the everyday Extras services such as physiotherapy, dental and optical.

Private health insurance is made of two parts - Hospital cover and Extras cover and you're able to buy them separately or packaged together. Hospital helps you avoid public hospital waiting lists and pays benefits toward the cost of private treatment. Extras cover is for the non-hospital everyday services like dental, optical and physio that you use to stay healthy.

The truth is that there's no one size fits all approach to private health cover. Your policy should be as individual as you are. The first step is to consider if you need cover as a single, couple or family, and then what you want to be covered for. Get a quote to view our cover options or call us.

Log in to change your level of health cover, or call us. We can help you make sure you have the right health cover for your needs. If you have already served your waiting periods, you won't need to serve them again. However, you may have to serve waiting periods for the new services added to your policy if you have upgraded your level of cover.

Lifetime Health Cover is a Federal Government initiative where a loading is applied to your premium if you take out hospital cover after 1 July following your 31st birthday. It's aimed at encouraging people to take out hospital cover early in life and maintain it.

Waiting periods are the time you need to wait after taking out private health insurance before you can claim on a service or item covered on your policy. All health insurers have them – it's necessary to keep health cover fair.