Lifetime Health Cover is designed to get people to take out private hospital cover earlier in life and keep it.
If you have private hospital cover by 1 July after your 31st birthday and keep it, you don’t have to worry about it.
If you decide to get hospital cover later, you’ll pay 2% more for cover for every year you’re over 30. This is called your Lifetime Health Cover loading (LHC).
Other things to know about LHC:
- The maximum LHC loading you can have is 70% at 65 years old
- People who were born on or before 1 July 1934 are exempt from the loading
- LHC loadings stay on your cover for 10 years. Once you’ve had hospital cover for 10 years straight the loading is removed (some conditions apply)