Do you have something to say about AHM? Tell us your good experiences, bad experiences or otherwise and help inform the CHOICE Community.
Read our AHM health insurance review
1 Like
My experience is one of concern about what a company - AHM Health Insurance - will do to ask for extra money after agreeing to premium for twelve months.
Last March, I renewed for 12 months - emphasis on renewed as opposed to a new application – and paid the premium up front but have recently received a notice my son will be removed when he turns 21 unless we update our policy – at a cost of $1,600 – to keep him there until the policy expires in March.
As they had all his details when they made the offer to renew last March, I asked why they did not talk with me about this issue or warn me at renewal time an extra fee could be charged during the year?
They have shown reluctance to answer the question but are determined that I should pay the extra money if I want to keep him there; they will not be negotiated with about this.
Interestingly, if I let him drop off and start up a policy for him, there is no reduction for the ‘family’ policy I have.
It appears that family is where there is more than one person on the policy and there are no discounts for a couples’ policy - my wife and myself only - without children.
I am not happy about this and they make me feel I am being unreasonable when communicating with them.
My feelings are that, as material facts have not changed over the time since their offer to me, they should honour their commitment and not abandon a client part way through a policy term.
What are other peoples’ experiences with them?
2 Likes
Sometimes it is cheaper to go to singles policies for each person you wish to cover. If a Male remove the need for pregnancy cover as an example of a possible saving or the need for a particular level of cover. Also looking at other companies to see if you can get a better deal, there is no requirement to stay with a fund and you could ask for a refund if you change to another company within the coverage period.
You can complain to them in writing, and to the Commonwealth Ombudsman about this issue. Though you should raise the issue in writing first with your insurance company and give them a reasonable time to respond eg a fortnight or 28 days would seem fair. Keep copies of all correspondence both to and from the insurers and send any letters to the Insurance company by a means that gives you proof eg registered mail or by Email (as this has time and date). Telephone calls are hard to use as they are not a good record of either when you or they made a call or what was discussed during those conversations (if they do happen always keep a diary or record of the date, time, to whom you talked and notes about what was discussed).
https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/How-we-can-help/private-health-insurance
https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/contact
If a member of CHOICE you can also avail yourself of their Help service which can provide letter templates and similar advice of how to go about dealing with the issue.
If you would like to, please keep us informed on this site about how you go in resolving the issue.
1 Like
Is ahm a reputable health fund? I’m thinking of joining.
1 Like
Welcome to the forum @Eva,
I moved your post into this topic about AHM. Unfortunately the Choice summary linked in the first post seems to lack a date but should still provide guidance as to whether AHM is reputable.
That page also links to member content comparing health funds based on features/needs.
1 Like
In relation to being reputable; you may also wish to read the following: 2020 07 16 ACCC notice about Medibank trading as ahm being fined $5M for misrepresentation.
2 Likes
Absolutely the worst health fund in Australia.
No service at all - tried to sort out my loading and it has now taken 8 months and got nowhere. Stay away from this rubbish.
1 Like
Welcome to the Community @Susanna
Could you be more specific on what your problem has been, presumably with the lifetime loading aspects?
Regardless, at 8 months have you worked through their complaint process in a formal manner, including using written and documented exchanges (including emails)? If not, many companies consider requests via customer service as ‘the customer is engaged in idle chit chat and wants something’. They sometimes only ly take it more seriously and assign supervisory oversight when it gets formal, and sometimes only when it is escalated to an external agency.
If you have been through the formal complains process and still gotten nowhere, go to
https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/How-we-can-help/private-health-insurance
noting they will only take your complaint after you have worked through the funds formal process. Whether the customer or fund is right, they will seek a correctly applied outcome and convey the reasoning.
1 Like
Has anyone use ahm for private health insurance? Any good?
Welcome to the Community @Jack
I merged your query into this existing topic about AHM. Not many replies but I hope it still might be helpful. Your addition to the topic will bump it up so others might add their own experiences.
1 Like
Welcome to the forum.
You may get some idea of how ahm operates from three posts before yours (post #5) which links to ACCC who fined them $5M for misrepresentation.
2 Likes
