Our personal lives are full of milestones, many of which centre around the health needs of our family.
When it’s time to consider whether your private health cover is meeting the growing health needs of your family and is providing the best value possible, there’s a few things to consider.
The price of health cover
Health insurance is community rated so your age, health status or claims history cannot influence the price of your health cover, and everyone pays the same amount regardless of the frequency of which they need to access health services. This system ensures equality and fairness for Australians when it comes to protecting their health with insurance.
The price of health cover varies for other reasons, such as the number of services it covers, the state or territory, and government initiatives such as Lifetime Health Cover loading and the Australian Government Rebate on Private Health Insurance.
Premiums are generally higher for policies that cover more services. In 2019, the Australian Government introduced tiers to categorise hospital cover: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Basic. While these tiers have standardised the inclusions of hospital cover, it’s up to individual health funds to set the price of these policies. That means a Gold policy with one health fund can have a different premium to a Gold policy with another health fund, even when they cover the same services.
Value means many things, in addition to price
Value for money when it comes to your health insurance doesn’t just include the cost of your premium. While price is an important consideration when managing a family budget, paying less may not necessarily mean you are receiving the right amount of value for your family. When assessing the value you receive from your health cover, other factors such as the level of medical gap cover your health fund offers, the service experience and the health fund itself and their values, all contribute to how your health cover can support and meet the health needs of your family.
If you do switch, it’s easier than you might think
In Australia health insurance is ‘portable’. This means you can switch health funds at any time and in most instances, you won’t have to re-serve waiting periods already served on your existing policy. If you’re upgrading your cover, you will need to serve waiting periods for any new services, and these can range from two months to 12 months. This is why planning for the additional services you may need can be beneficial to ensure you have served any waits before you need to access these services. When you switch, all this information is transferred directly between health funds, so you don’t need to worry about any of the paperwork.
We all want to get value from our health insurance, and there are important considerations when deciding on what this means for your family and what is the best option for your current and future needs.
With competitively priced Gold hospital cover, market leading medical gap cover and no preferred providers for extras, Doctors’ Health Fund is made for doctors, the medical community and your families. Plus, join on any hospital and extras by 30 June and receive up to 15 weeks free^ across your first two years and skip the two-month waiting period on extras so you can claim for services like dental and optical straight away.^ Made for better value for your family, see how your cover compares today.
^ Offer and policy T&Cs apply, see the DHF website. Existing Avant members receive 15 weeks over the first two years, non-Avant members receive 8 weeks free in the first year. Check eligibility in the full terms and conditions at doctorshealthfund.com.au/silvertogold
Private health insurance products are issued by The Doctors’ Health Fund Pty Limited, ABN 68 001 417 527 (Doctors’ Health Fund), a member of the Avant Mutual Group. Cover is subject to the terms and conditions (including waiting periods, limitations and exclusions) of the individual policy, available at www.doctorshealthfund.com.au/our-cover.
