Bupa health insurance review

Our verdict: Bupa health insurance is one of Australia’s most popular funds, in part due to its great value policies and good customer service.

4.1 ★★★★★ (454 reviews) Write a review

Pros

  • Basic Plus Starter is the cheapest plan on Finder to cover joint reconstruction, lung and chest; and miscarriage and termination of pregnancy.
  • It's popular. Bupa is the second-largest health insurer by market share, just behind Medibank.
  • Flexibility – with Bupa FLEXtras, you can pick the extras you'll actually use.
  • Bupa had proportionally fewer complaints than other funds including HCF and nib*.

Cons

  • Bupa is for-profit, which might matter to some people who want to look for a not-for-profit health fund.
  • Gold Comprehensive may not be the best value option for top tier cover. While it's very comprehensive and costs around $256.18 a month, Bupa's Silver Plus Advanced covers most Gold tier treatments from around $171.44 a month.

Finder Awards badge

Congratulations, Bupa!

Bupa received the following highly commended awards in the 2024 Product Awards:

  • 'Health Insurance - Basic Hospital'
  • 'Health Insurance - Medium Extras'
Full list of 2024 winners

Bupa health insurance: Our verdict

Bupa health insurance is Australia's second-biggest health fund, has over 4 million members and provides good value Basic, Bronze and Silver policies.

Bupa is good if:

  • You want good value for your money, particularly its Basic, Bronze and Silver Plus policies.
  • You want an insurer with good customer service – Bupa receives a lower percentage of complaints than its overall market share. This is not the case for many other funds.
  • You appreciate some flexibility with your insurance. Bupa FLEXtras lets you choose either 4 or 6 extras that will suit your needs, and you can opt for a standard or higher annual claims limit.

Bupa is not great if:

  • You want a not-for-profit health fund.
  • You want the cheapest Gold policy on the market.

Review by our insurance and innovations editor Gary Ross Hunter

Sign-up deals with Bupa health insurance for 2024

Name Product AUFHI-DLZ

Join Bupa direct and get up to 8 weeks free on eligible products

Ends 27 November 2024

Offer Ends Nov 27. New Bupa Members Only. Domestic policies only. Terms and conditions apply.

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What types of health insurance does Bupa offer?

Name and lozenges Finder Score Treatments Price
Finder score
  • Rehabilitation
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Dental surgery
  • Hernia and appendix
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Pain management
  • Gynaecology
  • Lung and chest
$103.35
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • Rehabilitation
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Dental surgery
  • Hernia and appendix
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Pain management
  • Gynaecology
  • Lung and chest
$112.10
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Ear nose and throat
  • Blood
  • Back neck and spine
  • Dental surgery
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Cancer
  • Lung and chest
$121.80
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • Lung and chest
  • Back neck and spine
  • Cataracts
  • Joint replacements
  • Blood
  • Dental surgery
  • Palliative care
  • Pregnancy and birth
$150.80
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • Lung and chest
  • Back neck and spine
  • Cataracts
  • Joint replacements
  • Blood
  • Dental surgery
  • Palliative care
  • Pregnancy and birth
$227.40
per month
Go to SiteView details
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Showing 5 of 5 results
Name and lozenges Finder Score Treatments Price
Freedom 50
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$20.00
per month
Go to SiteView details
Starter Extras
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$32.20
per month
Go to SiteView details
Core Extras
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$51.40
per month
Go to SiteView details
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Showing 3 of 3 results

Get the lowdown on Finder Score

Each month we analyse over 10,000 hospital and extras insurance products and rate each one on price and features. What we end up with is a nice round number out of 10 that helps you compare products a bit faster.

Before we start scoring, we need to make sure we're comparing like-for-like. Just as it doesn't make sense to compare a toy car with a Porche, it doesn't make sense to compare basic policies to top-tier gold policies. Each policy is given a price score and feature score. These are then combined to determine each policies's Finder Score. Read our full methodologies of how we calculated Finder Score for hospital cover and extras cover.

What do Australians think of Bupa health insurance?

  • 4.14/5 overall for Customer Satisfaction — higher than the average of 4.13
  • 4.56/5 for Trust — higher than the average of 4.46
  • 4.19/5 for Customer Service — higher than the average of 4.17

Based on Bupa health insurance scores in Finder's 2024 Customer Satisfaction Awards.

Why compare health insurance with Finder?

  • We don't ask for your phone or email to see prices.

  • With 1 click, you can open your results to nearly every fund in Australia.

  • You pay the same price as going direct – we charge no fees.

Bupa health insurance complaints

We looked at the 2023 Ombudsman health insurance complaints. Here's how Bupa stacked up:

  • Its customer service is among the best compared to other large funds. With a market share of 24.9%, only 23.7% of total complaints were about Bupa. This is a better complaint ratio than most of Australia's other large funds including HCF and nib.
  • While it has few complaints compared to market share, it's not number 1. HBF and GMHBA scored better.

Bupa frequently asked questions

Compare other products from Bupa

Gary Ross Hunter's headshot
Editor, Insurance

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 646 Finder guides across topics including:
  • Health, home, life, car, pet and travel insurance
  • Managing the cost of living

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