The best health insurance, so good it’s sickening

We analysed 400+ health insurance policies. Some were junk. Loads were great. But these ones are excellent.

Who is this cover for?

Top pick for
Hospital cover
HCF
  • 2023 Finder Award Winner: Best Bronze and Silver hospital
  • Silver policy covers 30 treatments at a great price
Top pick for
Families
Bupa HI Pty Ltd
  • No excess for kids in hospital
  • Free dental check-ups with combined cover
Top pick for
Basic hospital cover
HBF Health Insurance
Finder Award
  • Best Health Fund of the Year - 2024 Finder Awards
  • Excellent value basic hospital policy
Top pick for
Customer service
ahm health insurance
  • Winner: 2023 Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards
  • Lowest complaints ratio of any major fund
Top pick for
Pregnancy
Medibank Private Limited
  • Comprehensive hospital and extras
  • Continuity of care
  • Antenatal and postnatal classes

How we choose the best private health insurance

If you're looking for the best health insurance in Australia, it's basically impossible to get a single answer. Hospital vs extras, price, how much you're covered for, benefit limits, waiting periods and more – there's a lot to consider.

To give you a starting point, we've hand-picked 7 policies based on 400+ plans. Our data sources include the Finder Health Insurance Awards, the Ombudsman and APRA, plus customer reviews from the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards.

Why you can trust our research

Document with pencil
400+
policies assessed
Computer monitor and cellphone displaying charts
46
health funds analysed
Web browser displaying charts with magnifying glass
80+
hours of research
Web browser with user profile page displayed
765
customers surveyed

Top pick for value (silver hospital)

HCF HOSPITAL STANDARD SILVER PLUS

From

$28.51

/week

Hospital only

From

$28.51

/week

Our verdict

This won the 2023 Finder Award for best value silver policy. It scored higher than all 200+ silver plans we assessed. It covers 29 hospital treatments – 3 more than a typical silver policy. Bonus points: HCF is not-for-profit so money goes back to members, not shareholders.

Top pick for families (hospital and extras)

Bronze Plus Simple Hospital $750 Excess + Top Extras

From

$47.25

/week

Hospital and Extras

From

$47.25

/week

Our verdict

This combined hospital and extras policy could be good for complete families. Bupa's Top Extras policy covers orthodontics, dental check-ups are free with certain dentists and there's no excess for kids. You're also exempt from paying the Medicare levy surcharge if you earn over $194,000 a year as a family.

Top pick for basic hospital cover

Basic Hospital Plus Elevate $750/$1500 Excess

From

$22.50

/week

Hospital only

From

$22.50

/week

Our verdict

One of the only good value basic hospital policies on the market. Many basic policies don't cover any hospital treatments. HBF Basic Elevate covers 18. Bonus points – it lets you avoid the Medicare Levy surcharge (MLS) (the tax you need to pay if you earn over $97,000 as a single).

Top pick for customer service

Our verdict

ahm won the 2023 Finder Customer Satisfaction award. Out of the 750+ customers surveyed, it scored highly for customer service, value for money and application process. It also has some of the cheapest hospital policies on the market.

Top pick for pregnancy (hospital and extras)

Medibank Gold Protect + Growing Family 70

From

$78.49

/week

Hospital and Extras

From

$78.49

/week

Our verdict

This comes with lots of benefits you don't get with other insurers. In addition to pregnancy cover, continuity of care and IVF cover, you get access to its 24/7 Medibank Nurse service, an OptimalMe program for mums-to-be and a pregnancy health concierge. The Growing Family Extras cover includes pre and post-natal classes, and much more.

Top pick for basic hospital cover

Basic Hospital Plus Elevate $750/$1500 Excess

From

$22.50

/week

Hospital only

From

$22.50

/week

Our verdict

One of the only good value basic hospital policies on the market. Many basic policies don't cover any hospital treatments. HBF Basic Elevate covers 18. Bonus points – it lets you avoid the Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) (the tax you need to pay if you earn over $97,000 as a single). The not-for-profit also won Finder's 2024 best health fund of the year award.

Top pick for bonus points

Top pick for health benefits

Bronze Plus Hospital 750

From

$25.64

/week

Hospital only

From

$25.64

/week

Our verdict

If you want more for your money, AIA could be a good health insurer for you. You get access to AIA Vitality, money off gym memberships, cashback on Virgin flights, money off gift cards and more. The Bronze Plus policy is particularly good value. It costs around $24 per week, $3 more than the cheapest bronze option, and covers 23 hospital services (5 more than is required for a bronze policy).

Best health insurance companies based on Ombudsman data

We've also ranked the top-performing health insurance companies in Australia. To do this, we used data from the latest ombudsman State of the Health Funds report and merged it to develop our score rating for each company.

To get an overall score, we looked at the percentage of benefits covered, hospital expenses and extras services covered, no gap services, complaints made and more.

Fund name Our score
MDHF100/100
HBF96/100
Onemedifund91/100
Peoplecare86/100
St Lukes82/100
Medibank77/100
Health Partners73/100
CBHS Corporate68/100
BUPA64/100
Phoenix59/100

2023 Finder award winning hospital cover

These are the hospital insurance policies that came out on top in the 2023 Finder Awards. Each award category is based on the government's hospital tiers for gold, silver, bronze and basic policies.

Learn more about our award methodology

Best health insurers by customer satisfaction

Below are the results of the Finder 2023 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 1000 Australians to get these results. Funds without a score didn't get enough reviews for us to be confident of the results.

BrandOverall satisfactionCustomers who'd recommend
ahm health insurance★★★★★ 4.2/586%
Australian Unity health insurance★★★★★ 4.1/584%
frank health insurance★★★★★ 4.1/579%
Bupa health insurance★★★★★ 4.1/579%
HCF health insurance★★★★★ 4.1/584%
nib health insurance★★★★★ 4.0/581%
HBF health insurance★★★★★ 4.0/583%
Medibank health insurance★★★★★ 3.7/566%

Learn more about our customer satisfaction methodology

Beginner's guide to health insurance

What type of health insurance do you need?

Heart

Hospital only

Hospital only insurance can be good if you want cover in a private hospital. Private surgery waiting times are shorter and there are tax benefits if you earn $97,000+ a year.
Ambulance

Extras only

Extras cover can be worth it if you use lots of out-of-hospital services like dental. However, it does not save you from the Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) or Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading.
Combined

Combined

Combined cover includes hospital and extras. It can be good if you want total coverage for you and your family.
Pro tip: You'll need to serve a waiting period before you can claim. If you're switching funds, you can skip hospital waiting periods you've already served. Some extras policies let you skip waiting periods on things like dental, even for brand new policies.

Frequently asked questions

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.

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