Shopping around for health insurance

Loyalty is great, but if your health fund is not showing you loyalty, don't give it blindly in return.

Shopping around for your health cover can sometimes save you hundreds, and it doesn't have to be difficult.

Approach the exercise as you would when getting some work done around the house: get 3 quotes and pick the best one, and you should be able to improve the value you're getting on your cover.

The FiftyUp Club currently has an offer from members to use as a benchmark when you go shopping - begin by getting a quote on our current special offer with Australia's largest not-for-profit fund, HCF Health Insurance.

No single offer is right for everyone, but start by comparing the HCF offer to what you have, then get a 3rd quote from a health fund’s website or the government site privatehealth.gov.au, which has helpful one-page summaries of most policies.

As recent media reports have pointed out, some people get caught out when downgrading their cover if they don't know what they're trading away.

Keep an eye out for some of the below exclusions and restrictions so you know if you're trading something away to save money.

5 BITS OF HEALTH INSURANCE JARGON 

1. Public Hospital-only cover

This will help you choose your own doctor in a public hospital, and may be a good option for those just looking to minimised their tax, but it won’t help you beat the public hospital queues. You need proper private hospital cover for that. So make sure you know what you’re buying.

2. Waiting periods

The time you have to wait to be eligible for certain benefits. These are set by the government and the maximum waits are 12 months for pre-existing conditions and pregnancy-related services. Insurers often waive some of these to get you in. And if you’ve served them, you don’t have to serve them again when switching to a comparable policy.

3. Benefit limitation period

These are making a comeback. They begin AFTER the 12-month waiting periods. In return for lower premiums, the health fund pays only a restricted benefit, rather than a full benefit to cover a private hospital admission. BUT you can avoid them if you transfer or upgrade within the same fund.

4. Excesses and co-payments

Like any insurance policy, this is what you agree to pay when you claim. They’re capped at $1000 but there’s talk of raising them to cut the cost of health premiums. Watch this space.

5. The Gap

The dreaded difference between what a doctor might charge for the services in the hospital and what Medicare and the health insurance will pay. The average gap for hospital treatments is now about $280, and they go up to $5000 for some procedures.

There is more info at this link: http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/faq/glossary.htm