What's the point?
Public hospitals are free, so why would you pay to go to a private hospital? For one thing, waiting. A lot of people use the public system, so you can be waiting months (or longer) to get the treatment you need, especially if it’s not urgent.
With private cover, you can choose your doctor and get your treatment as soon as you need it. Not only that, but you could get a room all to yourself.
More reasons we think it’s worth it.
How does it work?
There are two parts to private health cover – hospital and extras cover.
- Hospital cover
Cover for things like accommodation, theatre and doctors’ fees in hospital.
Hospital cover is what many people need to avoid two government charges: Lifetime Health Cover loading (LHC) and Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS).
There’s also a juicy government incentive: take out our Bronze hospital cover before you turn 30 to lock in the age-based discount. The discount ranges from 2% to 10%, depending on your age.
Want to learn more? - Extras cover
Cover for everyday things like glasses or the dentist.
Our covers:
Hospital
We’ve got 4 levels of hospital cover, and they’re as simple as they sound.
- Bronze Hospital (with a $500 or $750 excess)
Value essentials (plus, if you join before you’re 30, you can get the aged-based discount on this cover!) - Silver Hospital (with a $500 or $750 excess)
Essentials + dental surgery, heart, lung, back, neck, spine etc. - Silver Plus Hospital (with a $500 or $750 excess)
Silver + joint replacements, kidney dialysis, cataracts, insulin pumps & pain mgmt. - Gold Hospital (with your choice of $250, $500 or $750 excess)
Cover for all 38 private hospital clinical categories.
Extras
We’ve got 4 levels of extras cover:
- Simple Extras
Essentials package to get you hooked on extras. - Mid Extras
A big step up with major dental & remedial massage added. Higher benefits too. - High Extras
Beefed up benefits with major inclusions like orthodontics, laser eye surgery, hearing aids, health aids & wellness. - Premium Extras
All our extras inclusions with the highest benefit rates and generous annual limits.
Combo
You can mix & match all of our hospital and extras covers to find your perfect fit. Plus, you’ll get 10% off your extras. Fabulous!
Ambulance cover
“At least get ambulance cover!”
– every parent ever
Lucky for you (and them), full ambulance cover is included with all of our levels of cover. Or you can take ambulance cover on it's own.
Make it cheaper
Get the Government Rebate
Depending on your income, the Government offers a rebate to help with the cost of private health cover. Tell me more
Get an excess
The higher your excess, the less you pay in premiums. Simple as that. Tell me more
Boring but important stuff
Waiting periods
Good news! If you take out your own cover within 30 days of coming off your parents’ cover, you’ll be able to claim straight away for the things you were already covered for with them (as long as they’ve served their waits, of course). The only thing you can’t do is claim for services you have in the days between coming off your parents’ cover and taking out your own (if you didn’t get cover straight away).
If you one-up your parents and take out a higher level of cover, you’ll have some waiting periods. Tell me more
Cooling off period
Changed your mind about your cover? No worries! Just let us know within 30 days of joining or upgrading your cover and you'll get a full refund of any premiums paid (as long as you haven't made any claims in that time, of course).
Other stuff
There are a few other things you should know about before you take out cover. They are:
- Our Privacy Policy
- Our Complaints Handling Policy
- The Medicare Levy Surcharge
- Lifetime Health Cover loading
- Code of Conduct
Before you make up your mind
This is just a quick overview of our covers and what private health cover is all about. Before you choose your cover, you should really check out our full brochure and check out our help me choose tool to find the right cover for you.
Otherwise, give us a buzz on 1800 808 704 and we’ll talk you through it.