Private Health Insurance Tiers

Do these tiers affect complications and unplanned treatment?

In addition to the minimum requirements above, all hospital policies have to make exceptions for certain complications and unplanned treatments. For example:  

• Insurers must cover any complications that arise from a planned treatment included in your policy. It doesn’t matter if the treatment for this complication isn’t covered by your policy; all that matters is if your policy covers the original reason you were admitted to hospital.
• Insurers must also cover unplanned treatment in certain conditions. If you’re admitted to hospital for a (planned) treatment your policy covers, and while you’re there, the doctor discovers you have another condition that needs urgent treatment, then your insurer will also need to cover this unplanned treatment.

Remember, no insurer can refuse to cover you for a treatment in the above circumstances. This means one less thing to worry about when selecting Private Health Insurance. 

How much does each tier of hospital cover cost?

A lot of different factors can affect how much hospital cover costs. Among other things, this can vary depending on your insurer, your excess and whether a Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading applies.

However, all things being equal, a policy that provides more cover will usually cost more.

This means that gold hospital cover from an insurer will typically cost more than basic hospital cover from the same insurer. So, as with most insurance, getting the right price and a suitable level of cover can be a bit of a balancing act. 

Do product tiers apply to extras cover?

No, insurers aren’t required to use any general categories for extras cover. Extras cover refers to cover for general treatments—the kind where you don’t usually have to go to hospital — like dental checkups, physiotherapy or speech therapy.

There can be a lot of differences between extras policies in terms of what is and isn’t covered. And insurers can also differ on how much they’ll pay in benefits for different treatments. 

On one hand, this means you’ll have to take each extras policy on a case-by-case, which can involve a bit more research. On the other hand, this gives you a bit more flexibility with your coverage; some insurers even let you pick and choose the benefits you want, ‘building’ the policy to your liking. That way, you might be able to avoid paying more for extras treatments you don’t need. 

Find a Health Insurance policy with iSelect

We get it. After reading everything here, comparing Private Health Insurance policies might be the last thing you want to do. But here’s our little secret: it doesn’t have to be some drawn-out snoozefest. 

iSelect has you covered with a quick and easy way to compare Hospital Cover. You can compare Health Insurance online or call us on 1800 784 772 with a range of providers—and all in a matter of minutes! Not too bad for your friendly neighbourhood comparison service, eh?