CHOICE health insurance comparison tool

I guess you arent in NSW and more particularly, Newcastle. I was referred to an orthopod and 4 years later still had not had a clinic appointment. I’m almost 70, but that was when I was 56. Shall I move to whrrever you are? Sounds like they are pretty well organised!

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Still raise a complaint with your Hospital, with your State member and your State Health Minister. See if you get some action after that. Your State Member try to always do it face to face rather than a written one but do take a written complaint to hand them about your issue.

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These silver health insurance policies are not good value. Find out which ones to avoid (member content):

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I have health insurance even though I’m young, and I’ve been looking through more ways to get value out of it.

My insurer recently started offering members a 5% discount off Coles/Woolworths gift cards. So if I spend at least $200 a month that I would have spent anyway at those businesses (they even work on alcohol and fuel) then I’m recovering around 10% of my premium.

If you have health insurance, see if your insurer offers similar. The saving adds up fast as long as you still make sure you shop around.

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Which insurer provides such an offer?

Many might be with the same insurer but unaware of this offer.

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I’m with Phoenix Health, but I’m sure a lot of insurers have similar offers.

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While not Health Insurance RACQ, NRMA etc offer their members various discounts and as examples find some below:

https://www.racq.com.au/membership/what-you-get/discounts

For a couple of Health funds see the ones below as examples

Medibank have their Member offers at:

https://www.medibank.com.au/health-insurance/special-offer/amcal/

AHM Perks:

But if a Union member or even perhaps a relative of one you might be able to use Union Shopper:

CHOICE may even be able to cut a deal for you:

https://www.choice.com.au/about-us/products-and-services/choice-shopper

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We recently published an article about health insurance rewards programs by @UtaMihm https://www.choice.com.au/money/insurance/health/articles/health-insurance-rewards-programs

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Do these five things to review your health insurance policy now and save money:

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We think these health insurance policies offer poor value:

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Why doesn’t NIB health-fund show up so I can have a comparison with the other funds, tried everything possible can’t get it to work

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Welcome @Fritz

I have moved your query to this existing topic on the CHOICE Health Insurance comparison tool. I have assumed that the request was about the tool, if it was in regard to another tool or site please let us know and it can be adjusted.

One of the CHOICE Staff who deals with this tool may be able to give some guidance on what is needed to get that comparison and it may also be a technical problem that needs fixing. Thank you for your post.

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Having checked, it seems included in the data

It is possible it is not returned in the comparison for various reasons such as the price or features do not put it on the ‘leader board’ for you, or as @grahroll suggested, a technical problem.

@UtaMihm (Choice staff) may wish to comment.

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Thanks @PhilT, @Fritz, thanks for letting us know you had trouble finding NIB policies, NIB is most certainly included. Here are some tips if you cannot find a fund:

  • Try to search for hospital and extras separately - as some funds do not have package policies or may not have a package policy that fits your requirements
  • For extras policies tick only the therapies you currently use, not ones you think are “nice to have”, if you tick too many there may not be any policies available
  • If you selected no excess, try selecting with an excess - for example, NIB and Bupa have no gold policies without an excess anymore.
  • Use the fund filter top left of the results screen to confirm the fund your are interested in is really not in the results.
    Please let me know if you continue to have problems, our email is healthinsurance@choice.com.au
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Here’s how the big funds compare in some key areas:

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I have had health insurance for over 40 years but got remarried 5 years ago and joined my husband up. Because he had never had cover before I pay dearly for this. Will the premium ever go down, or which fund would be cheaper for us. We are both late 60,s .

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Hi @Flannel53, thanks for getting in touch via the Community forum. Health insurers apply a loading for people over age 31, which may be affecting your husband’s premium. However, after 10 years continuous cover, this loading will be removed and premiums should go down for you.

We can only give you general advice, so we won’t be able to tell you exactly which policy will suit your needs and budget. However, we would encourage you to read through he advice on our website, and to use the various tools available to help you make the best decision. Here’s a good place to start:

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I think the Choice point about some Gold policies being cheaper than some Silver Plus policies, and therefore we should switch to the cheaper Gold policy - is losing the plot somewhat.

For example, ( using the Choice comparison tool ), if I moved from BUPA Silver Plus to Mildura Health Gold, I would indeed be saving money each month. But, BUPA is listed as paying out Above Average gap payments, while Mildura Health is listed as paying Below Average gap payments.

So any savings on the monthly premiums could be wiped out in a big way by my first hospital admission where my skilled surgeon demands his or her high fee, and Mildura Health coughs up a much smaller gap fee share than BUPA would have, had I stayed with BUPA.

It would depend on how much of a savings buffer I managed to build up before my first hospital admission, and between hospital admissions after that.

What Choice needs to do is compile a complete list of all the MBS procedures, and juxtapose that with a list of all medical practitioners and their fees for each procedure, plus a list of all health funds and their gap fees for each procedure, and then rejig the comparison tool :slightly_smiling_face:

Welcome to the Community @Norris_Lurker

There is another aspect to that. BUPA has a network of preferred providers that you have to use to get full benefit; most others have ‘no gap’ or ‘known gap’ providers but one can chose their provider.

The preferred provider networks are contracts whereby BUPA (and others with provider networks) have contracts for preferred pricing for their members in return for steering the members to those providers. The funds claim that is to keep costs down, but it can tip the balance from care to accounting, as is common in the USA health insurance industry.

As some have posted their providers drop out of the preferred lists from time to time so one must also be willing to change providers when that occurs to get those ‘above average’ benefits.

Documenting all the subtle difference would be challenging and might become information overload, and any time one checks a fund it is imperative to read the gotchas and fine print as well as the headline features.

Reality is they will usually not answer and if they will provide any guidance, it is guidance not factual, and they will not divulge all the extra costs involved such as anaesthesiologists, assistants, etc, who all do their own thing. If you search the Community you will find numerous posts about the opaque nature of the medical business. It would be wonderful if they had to post prices, but I’ll not hold my breath.

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Pls advice which restricted health fund is not competitive for gold hospital cover: Defence Health or Navy Health?