Is your health insurance policy really giving you the best value for money?
Health minister Mark Butler has just announced a private health premium increase of 3.03% to come into effect on 1 April, which means your monthly outgoings on health insurance are about to go up.
With many Australian families spending hundreds of dollars a month on health insurance, CHOICE experts say now is a great time to make sure you're getting the best deal possible.
Each health fund and each policy will have a different price increase. Your fund will contact you and tell you what your new monthly premium will be after 1 April.
While you're reviewing your new premium, make sure you understand the level of cover you're paying for and do some research to see if you can get a better deal elsewhere.
You may also find that downgrading to a lower level of cover might be a good way to make savings.
"It's important to review your health insurance at least once a year, and the first step is to check if you're still on the right level of cover," says CHOICE health insurance expert Uta Mihm.
"Even if you are on the right level of cover for your needs, you should still compare your policy against the best currently on offer – the same cover with a different insurer can be hundreds of dollars cheaper. It's likely that you'll be able to find a cheaper deal that will give you exactly the same amount of cover."
It's likely that you'll be able to find a cheaper deal that will give you exactly the same amount of cover
CHOICE insurance expert Uta Mihm
And as Uta explains, the savings could be well worth the effort of doing a bit of research (or let our Health Insurance Finder do most of the work for you).
"Our research has found that people with Bronze-level policies could save up to $860* by switching to another Bronze policy, while people with Gold-level policies could save as much as $1870* a year by moving to a cheaper policy," she says.
The CHOICE Health Insurance Finder compares policies from more than 40 insurers to help find the best one for you. Unlike other comparison sites, there are no sponsored results and you'll get the full picture of all the policies available to you.
If you're not already a CHOICE member, sign up to start comparing health cover now.
The cheapest health insurance policies
For CHOICE members, we've listed below the cheapest policies in each state across all levels of health insurance, from Bronze through to Gold, so you can compare prices easily.
We still advise you to check the details of what's included before changing policies, and to also make sure you are still on the best level of cover for your needs.
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