Compare health cover bywhat you'd pay a year, what extras pay back, the hospital tier, the excess or your rebate.what you'd pay a year.what extras pay back.the hospital tier.the excess.your rebate.

Yes. By law each health insurer files a Private Health Information Statement for every policy it sells, and PrivateHealth.gov.au, the government’s own comparison site, publishes them all. We read that file each month, so the policies here are the ones insurers have filed, whether or not an insurer works with comparison sites. What we add is the price for your household after the rebate, and what your extras would pay back.

Insurers file a monthly premium for each state and kind of household, before the government rebate. We take a year of it, less the age-based discount on hospital cover where the policy offers one, less the rebate for your income and age, plus any Lifetime Health Cover loading. Discounts for paying a year ahead or by direct debit aren’t filed, so aren’t counted. Premiums usually change once a year, on 1 April.

Not on its own: insurers must charge everyone the same premium for the same policy in a state, whatever their age or health. Three government rules then move it. The Lifetime Health Cover loading adds 2% to hospital cover for each year you were over 30 when you first took it out, up to 70%, and comes off after 10 continuous years. Some policies take up to 10% off hospital cover for people who join aged 18 to 29. And the rebate is higher from age 65, and again from 70.

You tell us what everyone on the policy uses in a year: check-ups, glasses, physio and so on. We price each at a typical private fee, apply what each policy pays for it (a dollar figure or a share of the fee) and its limits, and add it up. The fees are our assumption, so the figure is a guide, not a quote: your dentist or physio may charge more or less.

Yes. Side by side prices both insurers for your household, or until you give your answers for a single in NSW (a state-based fund in its home state), on hospital cover, extras or both, and shows each one’s April price rises. Each figure is compared line by line, with the gap between them. It never picks an overall winner.

Some banks and other brands sell health insurance that a health insurer provides. ING’s health insurance, for example, is a nib policy, as are those sold under the AAMI, Qantas, Suncorp and Apia names. We list each policy under the brand that sells it.

Not for cover you already have, as long as you move without a break in cover. Waiting periods you’ve served carry over to a new insurer for the same or a lower level of benefits. If the new policy covers more, or pays more, the waits apply to the extra part only. Each policy’s waiting periods are in its details.

Any hospital policy, Basic or above, whose excess is $750 or less for a single or $1,500 or less for a couple or family. Extras cover on its own doesn’t count. For 2026–27 the surcharge applies to incomes above $105,000 for singles and $210,000 for families, plus $1,500 for each dependent child after the first.

Some policies are sold only to an employer’s staff or an association’s members, and some insurers take only a group’s members, such as Defence Health, Teachers Health or Police Health. We leave those out because not everyone can buy them. Cover for overseas visitors and students isn’t compared here.