Hospital cover can help pay for treatments that require you to go to hospital, like knee surgery or cancer treatment. Here are some of the key benefits of hospital cover:
Hospital trips are more common than you think. 25 to 34 years olds are the most common 10-year age group to need to go to the emergency department, according to the Emergency Department Care Report 2015-2016.
Avoid Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading. By taking out hospital cover before your 31st birthday, you can avoid paying extra for cover thanks to the LHC.
More freedom. You get to choose your own doctor and you can get a private bed in a private room.
Get treatment quickly. Waiting times for treatments are usually much shorter.
Care beyond the basics provided by Medicare. It can get you cover for specialist treatment like rehabilitation.
Extras cover
Extras cover takes care of all the services that can be done out of hospital, like dental, physio and prescription glasses. Here are some of the key benefits of extras cover:
Out of hospital care. It can pay for dental treatment, glasses, physiotherapy, chiro and much more.
There's usually no lock-in contract. The beauty of extras cover is that you can usually cancel and you won't be charged a cancellation fee.
Access to care Medicare doesn't cover. Medicare doesn't cover extras services so unless you want to pay hundreds of dollars for treatment, you need extras health insurance.
Mental health support. It can also cover you for counselling sessions with a psychologist if you need to talk to someone.
Access to member discounts. Most policies come with perks, like gym membership subsidies, to help you keep fit and healthy, and save both you and your provider money.
Ambulance cover
If you don't want or need hospital or extras health insurance, it might still be worth taking out ambulance-only health insurance. Outside of Queensland and Tasmania, Ambulance services aren't covered by Medicare or state governments. Ambulance cover is available from around $1.50 a week, and will cover you for unexpected emergency trips.
Cheap hospital cover
If you're looking for cheap hospital cover for tax, you might want to avoid Basic tier policies and start with at least Bronze cover. It's just a few dollars more per month, and actually offers some coverage. Basic cover isn't required to fully cover any treatments, so it's generally not going to be very useful.
Here are some Bronze tier policies from Finder partners. All of these will exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) and the Lifetime Health Cover loading (LHC). All prices are based on a single individual with less than $97,000 income and living in Sydney.
If you're after cheap extras cover, you could do worse than to start with these policies from Finder partners. It's sorted by value using the Finder score algorithm our experts use for the Finder health insurance awards. Prices are for a single person earning less than $97,000 living in Sydney, with a $750 excess - learn why this matters here.
The Finder Score ranks every health policy in our database on value for money. We updated this monthly with data provided by Ombudsman.
We consider the 38 hospital treatment categories, plus the covered extras categories and the total extras benefit. We also use the average price for each product. Here's the breakdown of factors we consider.
Factors that affect your health insurance premiums
There are several factors that will change the price of your health insurance premiums, whether you get hospital or extras cover. Here are the main ones to consider.
Private Health Insurance Rebate: The price of your policy can vary by over 25% due to rebate. It's mainly based on your age and income.
Lifetime Health Cover Loading: If you don't have hospital cover after age 31, a 2% loading will be added to the price each year you don't have it.
State: The cost of medical care is different in every state, and that's reflected in your premiums.
Policy Excess: A policy with a larger excess will have lower premiums, but you will have more out of pocket costs when you claim.
Hospital health insurance comes in 4 tiers in Australia: basic, bronze, silver and gold. Each tier covers a higher number of treatments in a private hospital and generally have higher premiums. Young adults will have a variety of needs, so it's hard to say which tier you should go for. For example, bronze policies may cover most accidents or illnesses commonly experienced by young adults, but pregnancy and childbirth is only covered until silver plus and gold policies. Check out our page on hospital health insurance tiers to learn more.
Gary Ross Hunter has over 6 years of expertise writing about insurance, including life, health, home, and car insurance. Having reviewed hundreds of product disclosure statements and published over 800 articles, he loves simplifying complex insurance topics for everyday readers. Gary has contributed to major outlets like Yahoo Finance, The Sydney Morning Herald, and news.com.au, and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, along with a Tier 2 General Advice certification, ensuring his work adheres to ASIC’s RG146 standards. See full bio
Gary Ross's expertise
Gary Ross has written 615 Finder guides across topics including:
A seasoned journalist with over 10 years of experience in news, politics and finance reporting, Tim has previously held roles at the ABC, SBS and Fairfax Media. Tim’s expert insights have been quoted in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail and more. He regularly appears on TV and radio, and has been interviewed on 7 News, Sunrise, SBS News, ABC Local, 3AW and 5AA. Tim is passionate about simplifying complex insurance topics for Australian consumers. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Politics) from Macquarie University and a Tier 1 General Insurance (General Advice) certification, which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146).
If you’re interested in a media interview with Tim, please reach out to our PR team at aupr@finder.com. See full bio
Tim's expertise
Tim has written 149 Finder guides across topics including:
Get affordable cover for ambulance transport if you are not already covered under Medicare. Compare quotes from Australian funds to decide which level of protection is best for you.
Mental health issues are serious and can be costly, which is why Australian health funds are legally obligated to offer cover for treatment.
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