How to switch health insurance: Step-by-step
Find out exactly how to switch health insurance and get a better policy for your needs. Plus, tips on avoiding gaps in your cover ahead of the switching process.
Key takeaways
- Switching health funds is quick, easy and can save you money.
- You generally won't be hit with any waiting periods already served.
- You should be able to take advantage of sign-up offers when switching.
How does health insurance switching work?
In Australia, hospital insurance is 'portable', which means you can easily move between health funds. Portability is guarenteed by the federal government for hospital policies, but not for extras policies.
What this means in practice is hospital policies are super easy to switch, and your already-served waiting periods will transfer across. For extras, while this is not guaranteed, most health funds will apply the same rules. That means you'll probably have your waiting periods transfered across if you're moving to equivalent cover.
How do you switch health insurance?
1
Compare health policies
Find a new policy. This takes a little time, but we can help. You can start looking for the best health insurance for you here.2
Sign up online
Sign up for the new policy. You new provider will ask you about your existing cover and handle all the back-end administration.3
Check with your old fund
You probably won't need to cancel your old cover, but it's a good idea to double check so that you aren't charged twice.Pros and cons of switching health insurance
Switching health insurance isn't totally risk free. Whether it's worth switching health insurance will depend on your current policy and your health needs. Here are a few pros and cons to consider.
Switching pros
- Get a better policy. There are thousands of health policies out there - one might suit you better.
- Save you money. If your health needs have changed, you might be able to save money with a different fund.
- Sign-up offers. You'll be a new customer to your new fund, so you're eligible for sign-up offers.
- No need to wait. If you've aleady served waiting periods for equivalent cover, you probably won't need to re-serve them.
Switching cons
- Changing your cover. If you switch to lower policy, that could leave you without cover for something you need.
- Extras waiting periods. While the government requires health funds to honour already served hospital waiting periods, extras vary by fund and may not transfer.
- Losing your policy. If you switch from a grandfathered policy that's not available anymore you may not be able to get it back.
- Loyalty benefits. If you have any loyalty benefits, they won't carry across.
Sign-up deals for switching health insurance
One of the best things about switching health insurance providers is that you may be eligible for some sweet sign-up deals! As long as you're a new customer to the new provider, any sign-up deal should apply to you. Here are a few live deals from Finder partners.
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Switching health fund vs changing policy
If you're not happy with your current health insurance, it's probably worth having a look at the other policies available from your health fund. It might be that there is another policy that fits your needs better, and that might even save you money. It's going to be less admin to stick with the same provider, which is a plus.
Note that if you change policies with the same provider, the cons of switching health funds will still apply. If you go to a higher level of cover you'll need to re-serve waiting periods, and you may lose a grandfathered plan. But you won't get access to sign-up offers that you would if you switched to a new provider.
Finder survey: How often do people compare or switch health insurance?
Response | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| About once a year | 18.54% | 13.22% |
| I never compare or switch insurance | 16.25% | 17.24% |
| About every 2 yrs | 10% | 9.39% |
| About every 3+ yrs | 7.5% | 7.47% |
| More than once a year | 3.96% | 2.49% |
Source: Finder survey by Pure Profile of 1006 Australians, December 2023
Waiting periods when switching health funds
Waiting periods are treated slightly differently for hospital and extras cover.
Hospital waiting periods
Hospital is guaranteed portable, so waiting periods you've already served will transfer across. However, if you increasing your hospital tier, you'll need to serve waiting periods for your new treatment categories. Those waiting periods will be 2 months for most categories, or 12 months for child birth or pre-existing conditions.
For example, if your new policy covers pregnancy but your old one didn't, you'll have to wait 12 months.
Extras waiting periods
The portability guarantee does not apply to extras. That means your new insurer has the right to make you wait again. This doesn't happen very often though. Health funds want you to switch to them, so most of them will honour your previously served waiting periods when you're switching to equivalent cover.
To make sure you have consistent coverage, it's a good idea to call any prospective health fund ahead of time, to see if they'll honour your previous waiting periods.
Why switch health funds?
"When I was switching health funds, my main motivation was to save money. I have access to some great public hospitals near me, including a $2bn university hospital, so I have health hospital cover for absolute worst-case scenarios and to save money on tax. I made sure I compared apples with apples and switched to a fund with the lowest premiums I could find."
Should you switch policies when having a baby?
A lot of people will review their health insurance because they're planning on having a baby. This is as good a time as any to make sure you're on the right policy, but you do have to time it right.
- If you're planning a baby you'll need health insurance that covers child birth at least 12 months ahead of time. Pregnancy has a longer than normal waiting period, so make sure you switch with enough time. If it's already too late, you'll probably need to give birth in the public system (which is generally fine, ftr).
- If you've just had a baby you'll probably want to switch to a family policy to cover your newborn. You don't need to do this until they're born, but you should do it as soon as you can after that. If you're on a couples policy, you can upgrade to a family policy. If you're on a single policy, you can upgrade to a single-parent policy. And yeah, you can do this with your current health fund, or use it as an opportunity to switch.
- If you're done having babies then you might want to consieder switching to a lower tier hospital policy that doesn't cover child birth. If you can find a policy that covers everything you still need without including child birth or IVF, then you'll probably save money. Just make sure you're definitely done having kids!
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