Private Health Insurance Brokers

A Guide to buying Health Insurance in Australian

Over 44¹ per cent of Australians choose to be covered by private health insurance and with 39² different health funds in the market the options are wide and filled with choices. Therefore it’s important to shop around.

Private health insurance in Australia can help cover you for treatment not covered by Medicare, such as dental, optical, physiotherapy, and a range of natural therapies. In addition, private health insurance can help you reduce hospital waiting times for treatment and give you a greater choice of preferred doctor and hospital.

Australian health insurance is divided into the following types of cover:

• Hospital cover
• Extras cover
• Combined cover (both hospital and extras cover)

Each “life stage” is filled with its own health challenges and getting the right cover for you or your family’s particular situation can be difficult without getting the right advice. There are many policy combinations on offer within Australia and the options, price and level of cover can vary greatly, so it’s important that you shop around and get quality advice. In addition, with prices varying, the right decision can also mean more money in your pocket.

Depending on your age, the Australian government also pays 30% or more of the health insurance costs through a rebate system and this can be taken as either a reduction in your premium or claimed as a tax deduction.

Before you commit to a particular policy it is important to compare a range of health funds and policy combinations. Getting the right advice and understanding the fine print can help put you in control of your purchase and provide you with clarity on exactly what you’re covered for.

Here are some of our top tips on buying private health insurance in Australia:

Top tips on buying private health insurance in Australia:

• Getting the right advice can help take the mystery and complexity out of purchasing private health insurance. Private health insurance brokers can help you compare policies from their participating health insurers and generally match the premiums offered by the health funds directly. Plus you’re provided with choice and advice for your individual circumstances.
• Many consumers choose hospital cover as well as extras cover for things like dentistry, physiotherapy, optical, natural therapies and more. There is broad variation between funds on what you’ll get back so it’s important to make sure that the cover you choose is competitively priced and pays you when you make a claim.
• Work out what “life stage” you’re at. Generally we suggest that there are five broad life stages. For example, If you’re young you may not want things like hip replacement, if you’re you older you may not want birth cover, or if you’re over 40, then major dental is probably a wise choice. It’s a good idea to look at your individual health status, family history, talk to your doctor and select your policy accordingly.

Prior to settling in Australia, make sure to check your Medicare eligibility at www.medicare.gov.au

For more information and details of iSelect’s participating health funds visit: www.iselect.com.au

Source:
1. Media Release – Nicola Roxon (Federal Health Minister) – 21 February 2011
2. Federal Government Private Health Insurance Website: www.privatehealth.gov.au/dynamic/healthfundlist.aspx