The best health insurance covers what you need - like hospital stays, dental, or pregnancy care - without making you pay for extras you won't use. For example, young singles might prioritise affordable premiums, while families could focus on comprehensive extras and maternity cover. The key is finding a policy that fits your health needs and budget.
At Finder, we've analysed over 30 health funds and hundreds of policies, comparing costs, coverage, and customer satisfaction to identify the best value options. Our picks are based on this research, but always check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to ensure the policy works for you.
The top picks were updated by our team of insurance experts after 80+ hours of research across 45+ health funds.
Finding the best health insurance in Australia comes down to value, coverage, and how well a policy fits your needs. The ideal policy should cover everything you're likely to need, without making you pay for services you won't use. To help you along the way, we look at affordability (i.e. how much different health funds cost for similar policies), benefits (i.e. what a policy covers, particularly if it offers more than the minimum for each tier), and strong customer satisfaction (i.e. by looking at customer satisfaction data, as well as its history of complaints).
There's a lot to consider, and the policy that's right for you is not going to be the same as your neighbour, friend, relative, etc. As such, the policies above are a really good starting point, but they might not be your ending point.
Our sources include the Finder Score, the Finder Awards, as well as data from the Ombudsman and APRA, which are the government departments that keep tabs on the health insurance industry. We also use data from customer reviews that we collect through the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards.
0:08
Hi! I'm Tim Bennett. I'm an expert in health insurance finder.com.au. Now, there is no "best health insurance", just as there is no "best" way to watch the Star Wars movies. Even though this is the correct way to watch the Star Wars movies.
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For health insurance, you need to work out what is right for you. Which is why your health insurance will be different to mine's, will be different to my mom's. Let's go over the very basics.
0:30
In Australia, you've got Medicare, the public scheme, and then you've got private health insurance, and it comes in two flavors: Hospital and Extras.
Hospital covers you for treatment in a private hospital and will help you pay the cost of surgery. This could include back surgery, joint reconstructions, adenoid removals, child birth, as well as dozens of other common treatments and some uncommon ones as well, to be fair.
0:54
When finding the best hospital coverage for you, you're going to need something that covers all of your needs both now and in the future. Cover is arranged into four different tiers to make things easier: Basic, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
1:07
it's a bit like the insurance Olympics, although I guess technically, you wouldn't want to compete if it's your health anyway. It's a bad analogy. Point is, the higher your coverage, the more you'll have to pay in premiums and only you can make that choice.
1:20
Now, let's talk about extras. Now extras covers you for things that Medicare doesn't outside of a hospital. This can include dental, physio and optical. Yeah, I'm going to need to put these back on.
1:33
Now an extras policy will have maximum annual limits that you can claim for. For example, you might have an extras policy that gives you $200 to spend on optical, $300 to spend on general dental, and then $500 to spend combined on physio and chiro, which gives you a total benefit of $1,000 a year.
1:54
Ideally, you want to have enough of an annual benefit limit across all of the extras that you're likely to claim to pay back the amount that you pay in premiums. Now I should say the point of insurance is not to make money on Extras or Hospital, certainly. The point is peace of mind so even if it's going to cost you every year and you're not going to claim back everything, it's about making sure that your health is looked after. We only get one chance on this big blue ball hurdling through the galaxy.
2:21
So there are easy ways to compare health insurance and find the best health insurance for you and that way is finder.com.au. That kind of rhyme, didn't it? Yeah, it was pretty good.
2:31
Head to finder.com.au and we will guide you through the process. There's a tool that asks you a couple of questions that will get rid of all of the policies that don't make sense for you, so you can just focus on the best policies that will fit your specific needs. And remember, your specific needs will change over time and you should make it a habit of comparing health insurance at least once a year. Tax time is a really good time that a lot of people use to remind them.
2:57
Now remember this is not financial advice. It's just general information that, look, I think is pretty useful but when you're comparing health insurance policies, you need to read the PDS, the product disclosure statement, and figure out what's best for you.
3:09
That is it for today. There's a lot more to learn on health insurance. And if you'd like to learn more, head to finder.com.au/health-insurance. But this video should give you everything you need to get started comparing today.
While it's hard to label any single company as the 'best', there are a few things to keep an eye out for that can help you understand each insurer's strengths. We've used data from the government's latest State of the Health Funds report to break down the top 5 for benefits paid, hospital-related charges covered and no-gap medical services.
We only looked at open membership funds – these are ones available to all Australians. If you're entitled to join a restricted membership fund though, it's worth considering. They sometimes perform better than open funds.
This is the percentage of total contributions the insurer received that it returned to contributors in benefits.
The is the proportion of private hospital charges covered on average.
This is the the proportion of medical services for which a gap is not payable by the patient.
These are the hospital insurance policies that came out on top in the 2025 Finder Awards. Each award category is based on the government's hospital tiers for gold, silver, bronze and basic policies.
Below are the results of the Finder 2024 health insurance Customer Satisfaction awards. These tell us which health funds Aussies think is the greatest for customer services and overall experience. We got responses from over 400 Australians to get these results. Funds without a score didn't get enough reviews for us to be confident of the results.
| Brand | Overall satisfaction | Trustworthy/reliable |
|---|---|---|
 | ★★★★★ 4.46 | 100% |
 | ★★★★★ 4.36 | 100% |
 | ★★★★★ 4.35 | 97% |
 | ★★★★★ 4.18 | 94% |
 | ★★★★★ 4.14 | 94% |
"If you think you might need an elective procedure such as a knee replacement or cataract operation in the next few years, health insurance is worthwhile as public hospital waiting lists can be very long."
Private health insurance provides coverage beyond Medicare. It can make in-hospital healthcare more convenient and everyday healthcare costs more affordable. Learn more.
Extras health insurance comes in hundreds of varieties...literally. Learn more and compare extras cover from dozens of providers before you buy.
see-u is part of popular non profit insurer HBF. Previous known as CUA, see-u offers a simple, no nonsense set of products aimed at younger Aussies.
Our verdict: Australian Seniors has some well priced policies, including some that are custom made for older Australians, issued by nib.
Prenatal care in Australia is covered by Medicare, meaning it’s mostly free through the public system. You can choose to go private, which comes with a lot of benefits – but there are out-of-pocket expenses to watch out for.
Work out your savings and see the financial case for going sober.
Priceline are a simple, no-nonsense health insurance brand offered by the popular pharmacy, underwritten by nib. Regular shoppers can score some great benefits as members, so should definitely consider their cover options.
ahm offers a broad range of policies with affordable premiums, but if you’re looking for the lowest price possible, cheaper options are available.
With reasonable prices and strong benefits, several Medibank policies were highly commended in the 2024 Finder Health Insurance Awards.
Find out about the latest health insurance deals and special promotions.
I may need cataract surgery and am wondering what results there are for
for the best cover for this procedure.
Also if there is a bulk billing available for seniors .
Hi Robert, Check out our guide to cataract surgery costs and cover for information on policies that will cover this. Generally this does require more expensive policies. Cataract surgery is covered under Medicare, but the waiting lists can be longer and you may still have to pay some specialist fees.
Could you please tell me which health fund covers dependents at no extras cost. Adult dependents who are not studying, living with parents and not working or in a de-facto relationship and between the age of 21-25?
Hi Dean,
Typically, there’s no extra cost for dependents – up to the policy’s stated maximum age (which is 31). There’s no age limit for any dependents with a disability.
Feel free to compare your health insurance options in the table above. Be sure to read through the terms and conditions of your chosen insurer with care before you buy.
Regards,
James
Which private health insurance companies offer the best reimbursement of the cost of hearing aids?
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your question.
The best insurance company for you would be the one that best meets your needs, preference, and budget.
If you would like to review the cover limits of Australian funds for hearing aids please head over to our health insurance for hearing aids article.
Open that link and you will find a list of health insurance brands that offer hearing aids cover. Check our comparison table to get an overview of their offer. Once you’re done comparing, you can then select the “Go to site” button to be redirected to your chosen provider’s official website.
While looking for insurers, please make sure you read the terms and conditions of the policy to learn more and know if it is the right policy for you or not.
I hope this helps. Should you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach us out again.
Have a wonderful day!
Cheers,
Zubair