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Compare Australian Unity health insurance

How Australian Unity Health rates for member complaints, gap cover and ambulance.

Australian Unity logo
CHOICE staff
CHOICE staff

Who is Australian Unity?

Established in 1840, Australian Unity delivers health, wealth and care services. The mutual company has 345,000 health fund members nationwide and is part of Members Health, an alliance of nonprofit and mutual health funds. While it isn't a nonprofit fund, as a mutual company it returns profits to benefit members.

Phone: 1300 793 157

Website: australianunity.com.au

Does Australian Unity get many complaints from members?

Australian Unity has a High complaints rating.

When we score policies we give each fund a complaints rating, based on the number of complaints and serious disputes the Ombudsman deals with. We take into account the size of the fund, so big funds don't get automatically penalised for having more complaints. The ratings are Low, Medium and High. A Low rating is better than a High rating – it means the fund has fewer complaints and fewer serious disputes for its size.

How good is Australian Unity's gap cover?

A medical gap is the difference between Medicare's recommended fee and what your doctor actually charges for a treatment or service.

Health funds have agreements with particular doctors and hospitals to cover all of the gap, which are called 'no gap agreements', or part of that gap, which are called 'known gap agreements' (these will have lower out-of-pocket costs, usually less than $500).

Our graphic below displays the CHOICE gap rating, which takes into account the percentage of services where members either paid no gap or a known gap, compared to the state average.

Rating scale

  • Well above average
  • Above average
  • Average
  • Below average
  • Well below average

How many hospital agreements does Australian Unity have in my state?

The benefit amount your fund pays you for hospital services depends not only on the type of cover you buy, but also whether your fund has an agreement with the hospital where you're treated. 

The table below shows how many hospital agreements Australian Unity has in your state compared to the fund with the highest number (the industry maximum). Note that public hospitals don't have agreements with specific funds and are generally treated as though they're agreement hospitals.

Does Australian Unity offer any discounts?

Discount for direct debit: 4%.

Discount for annual prepay: 4% (not in addition to the above).

Total discount for annual prepay via direct debit: 4%.

Youth discounts: None.

Does Australian Unity offer ambulance cover?

Australian Unity hospital, extras, and combined policies offer unlimited emergency ambulance in all states, as well as two ambulance attendances (where you are not taken to hospital) per person per calendar year.

 Does Australian Unity offer family policies that cover adult children?

  • Adult children are covered on family policies for free until they turn 23.
  • Full-time students are covered on family policies for free until they turn 25.
  • Adult children younger than 31 can be covered on extended family policies for an extra cost. 

Does Australian Unity let you claim online or in-app?

Online claiming and in-app (iOS and Android) claiming is available for dental, optical, physio, chiro, osteo, podiatry, speech/eye/occupational therapy, acupuncture, myotherapy, remedial massage, and dietetics.

We care about accuracy. See something that's not quite right in this article? Let us know or read more about fact-checking at CHOICE.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.