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How Does Our Health Insurance Comparison Work?
How Does Our Health Insurance Comparison Work?
At iSelect, our health insurance comparison service is completely free of charge to customers. But we understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. We’re a business and that means we need to make money – after all, we’ve got more than 300 talented people to pay!
We’re proud of the service we provide to help Aussies get a better deal on their health insurance. We know that without your trust we wouldn’t get very far and that to keep it, we need to be open and transparent about how we operate. So let us explain how we keep our health insurance comparison service free for our customers.
How do we make money?
As mentioned, our health insurance comparison service is provided completely free of charge. Customers pay nothing for our advice, and it comes with no obligation to purchase.
Instead of charging our customers a fee, we’re paid a commission by the health insurance company each time one of our customers chooses to take out a policy with them. Put simply, a commission is a percentage of the cost of the health insurance policy. We make it very clear throughout our health insurance comparison process that we will receive a commission from the health fund should the customer choose to purchase.
The commissions we’re paid by our partner health funds are an economical way for funds to attract new customers, and in many cases cost less than their own advertising or sales activity. The cost of the commissions are balanced out by the cost savings the funds achieve through reductions in their advertising, marketing, and sales budgets.
Our comparison service also increases industry competition by helping smaller companies to reach new customers.
Commissions do not influence our recommendations
Our health insurance advice and recommendations are not influenced or biased by the commissions we earn or the fee arrangements with our health insurance partners. Our fee arrangements are kept completely confidential, which means our health insurance comparison experts are unaware of the fees paid to each individual health fund.
Our highly trained health insurance comparison experts are rewarded for the quality of advice they provide and the number of customers who they help purchase from our range of health insurance policies. Each comparison expert receives ongoing training to make sure you get accurate advice and outstanding customer service.
Our comparison experts receive a generous base salary and are also paid a commission based on the number of sales they make each day.
Importantly, our comparison experts are paid the same amount regardless of which provider they recommend. This means they’re not incentivised to recommend a particular provider over another but instead base their recommendation purely on your individual needs.
We don’t mark up the price of policies
We do not mark up the price of our health insurance products. Customers pay exactly the same for a health insurance policy purchased from us as they would buying the same policy directly from the insurer or via another comparison site (excluding corporate discounts.) In fact, we’re so confident that you won’t pay more for going direct that our Health Insurance Price Promise means we’ll give you a $500 eGift card if you find the same policy with a lower standard annual premium within 30 days or purchasing (T&Cs apply).
How do we compare?
We get that most people have better things to do than compare health insurance. Health insurance is complicated, and comparing policies is time-consuming (not to mention boring). After all, if it were easy, iSelect wouldn’t be here!
While most customers start on our website, only some feel comfortable actually purchasing a policy online. Many customers prefer to speak over the phone with one of our highly trained health insurance comparison experts. Our team members will ask customers a series of questions to narrow down policies and present them with a range of options that meet their individual health needs and budget.
The type of information our comparison experts will ask for includes:
- where you live (because health insurance policies and prices vary by state)
- how old you are (because you may be eligible for discounts or subject to government loadings depending on your age)
- your family situation (to determine whether a single, couple, or family policy would be most suitable)
- your taxable income (as this impacts what government rebates you may be eligible for)
- any specific health needs (including anything in particular you want cover for, whether you have an upcoming surgery or procedure planned, or have any pre-existing conditions)
- what extras services you are likely to use or find valuable.
Our health comparison experts can also talk you through the different types of cover available – including what basic, bronze, silver, and gold levels of hospital cover mean. They can also demystify how private health insurance relates to tax and explain how the Medicare Levy Surcharge, the private health insurance rebate and Lifetime Health Cover loading can impact the cost of your policy.
Which health funds do we compare?
There are more than 30 health insurance companies currently in operation in Australia. While we’re always looking to add more health funds to our panel, we’re completely upfront about the fact that we don’t compare all funds.
That said, we have a number of Australia’s leading health funds on our panel and we’re confident that we’ll be able to find a policy that suits your needs and budget.
And if we can’t, we’ll be honest about it and tell you to stay to stay exactly where you are – which means that while you might not have saved more money, you’ll have the invaluable peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re already on a suitable health insurance policy.
We currently compare policies from the following health funds:
Even if your current policy is from a fund we don’t work with, it’s still worth having a chat to us so you’ll know how it stacks up against those we do sell.
Leading by example
We are a fully compliant member of the Private Health Insurance Intermediaries Association and signatory to their Code of Conduct.
Compare health insurance policies the easy way
Save time and effort by comparing a range of Australia’s health funds with iSelect
iSelect does not compare all health insurance providers or policies in the market. The availability of policies will change from time to time. Not all policies available from its providers are compared by iSelect and due to commercial arrangements, your stated needs and circumstances, not all policies compared by iSelect are available to all customers. Some policies and special offers are available only from iSelect’s contact centre or website. Click here to view iSelect’s range of providers