Our experts compared 400+ policies to help you find the best health insurance products and providers of 2024.
The Finder Health insurance awards is a ratings methodology that showcases the best health insurance products based on a combined price and features score. Our methodology for this award was curated to accurately present the best health insurance options for distinct categories within private health insurance in Australia.
HBF is this year's 2024 Finder health insurance winner. The winner was determined by awarding points to the winners and runners-up of the gold/silver/bronze/basic awards and extras policy awards. The not-for-profit came out on top because it has some of the best value policies on the market.
HBF's Basic Hospital Plus Elevate policy won the 2024 Finder Awards for best basic hospital policy. These awards compared all eligible basic hospital policies on the market. It won based on value for money, meaning policies that covered more treatments in a private hospital for a lower premium scored higher.
Bupa's Basic Plus Starter Hospital policy came in second place for our basic category. It costs around $19 per week and covers treatments including tonsils, adenoids and grommets, joint reconstructions and miscarriage and termination of pregnancy.
Frank's Entry Hospital Plus policy came in third place for our basic category. It costs around $20 per week and covers treatments including dental surgery, tonsils, adenoids and grommets, joint reconstructions, hernia and appendix, and gynaecology.
HCF's Hospital Bronze Plus policy is the 2024 Finder Award winner in our bronze category. It won based on value for money, meaning policies that covered more treatments in a private hospital for a lower premium scored higher. It scored higher than all eligible bronze hospital policies on the market.
HBF's Bronze Hospital Plus policy came in second place for our bronze category. The 2023 winner costs around $22 per week and covers 26 services including gastrointestinal endoscopy, bone, joint and muscle, and kidney and bladder.
Medibank's Bronze Plus Progress policy came in third place. It costs around $21 per week and covers a wide range of treatments including treatment for back, neck and spine.
HBF's Silver Hospital policy ranked in first place out of all of the eligible silver policies we analysed as part of the awards. The not-for-profit health fund's policy costs approximately $28 per week and covers 30 treatments including heart and vascular system, back, neck and spine, digestive system and dental surgery.
HCF's Hospital Standard Silver Plus ranked in second place out of all of the eligible silver policies we analysed. The not-for-profit health fund's policy costs approximately $30 per week and covers treatments including digestive system, heart and vascular system and back, neck and spine.
Qantas Silver Hospital policy ranked in third place out of all of the eligible silver policies we analysed as part of the Finder awards. The fund's policy costs around $25 per week and covers a number of treatments including heart and vascular system, digestive system and dental surgery.
St. Lukes Health Gold hospital policy is the 2024 gold hospital winner. It covers all 38 hospital treatments for less than almost every other health insurance policy on the market.
Health Partners Gold hospital policy is the 2024 runner up in our gold category. It covers all 38 hospital treatments for less than almost every other health insurance policy on the market.
HBF's Gold hospital Elevate is another highly commended brand in the 2024 gold hospital category. It covers all 38 hospital treatments and comes with several unique perks across the board.
Westfund's Starter Extras option is the winner of the 2024 Core Extras category. To get our final extras insurance scores, we added together the price and features scores and weighted them 50:50. Westfund's Starter Extras came out on top.
Latrobe's Extras option is the runner up in the 2024 Core Extras category. Costs start from around $4 a week and it covers general dental, major dental, optical and more.
Ahm's Basic Extras option is the third highest ranking Core Extras policy according to the Finder rating. Costs start from just under $9 a week and it covers general dental, major dental, Physiotherapy and more.
HBF's Flex 50 is the Medium Extras category winner. Starting from around $8 a week, it lets you split your $800 limit across 12 popular services including preventative dental, major dental, physio and dietetics.
Bupa's Your Choice Extras 60 is another high-ranking flexible extras option. The 2024 runner up costs around $9 a week and lets you tailor your extras cover to suit your needs. You'll receive 50% back at Bupa recognised providers on your selected services, up to your yearly limits.
Medibank's Healthy Start Extras came in third place. It costs around $6 per week, making it one of the cheapest policies available. You get a $500 combined limit on extras services such as physio, mental health support and chiro.
The Comprehensive Extras category winner for 2024 is Latrobe's Core Complete Extras Package. It costs approximately $9 per week and covers all standard extras treatments, as well as nutrition, psychology, audiology, speech therapy, health appliances including blood glucose monitors and hearing aids. It also comes with unlimited emergency ambulance transportation.
Medibank's Growing Family 60 is tailored towards families who plan to have children. It covers all the standard extras treatments as well as pregnancy compression garments, antenatal and postnatal services and more.
The third highest ranking policy in the comprehensive extras category, Westfund's High Extras policy is designed for mature singles and couples. The policy provides generous per-person limits on optical, dental, physiotherapy, chiro, and a range of other therapies.
About Finder's Health Insurance Awards methodology
Our team of experts compared 400+ policies to select our health insurance award winners for 2024. The hospital & extras scores was informed by a mix of price and features with both variables accounting for 50% of the overall score. The features score was calculated by the number of treatments each individual policy provides. Our pricing score was informed entirely by the average price of each product, with policies offering the best value scoring the highest.
Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio
Gary Ross's expertise
Gary Ross has written 644 Finder guides across topics including:
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Finder makes money from featured partners, but editorial opinions are our own.
Finder is one of Australia's leading comparison websites. We are committed to our readers and stand by our editorial principles.
We try to take an open and transparent approach and provide a broad-based comparison service. However, you should be aware that while we are an independently owned service, our comparison service does not include all providers or all products available in the market.
Some product issuers may provide products or offer services through multiple brands, associated companies or different labeling arrangements. This can make it difficult for consumers to compare alternatives or identify the companies behind the products. However, we aim to provide information to enable consumers to understand these issues.
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