Compare Emergency Services Health health insurance

How Emergency Services Health rates for member complaints, gap cover and ambulance cover.

CHOICE staff

On this page:

Who can join Emergency Services Health?
Is Emergency Services Health nonprofit?
Does Emergency Services Health get many complaints from members?
How good is Emergency Services Health's gap cover?
How many hospital agreements does Emergency Services Health have in my state?
Does Emergency Services Health offer any discounts?
Does Emergency Services Health offer ambulance cover?
Does Emergency Services Health offer family policies that cover adult children?
Does Emergency Services Health let you claim online or in-app?

Emergency Services Health summary

Emergency Services Health is a restricted membership nonprofit health fund started by Police Health. It's primarily for those who work and volunteer to protect the community including fire, state emergency, ambulance, medical response and recovery, and water response and recovery sectors. Emergency Services Health is part of Members Own Health Funds, an alliance of nonprofit and mutual health funds that promotes the benefits of funds that reward members rather than investors or overseas owners.

Phone: 1300 703 703

Website: eshealth.com.au

Who can join Emergency Services Health?

Current or former employees or volunteers in fire, ambulance, medical, water, state emergency response and recovery services, and their related unions or associations.

For further details see their website.

Is Emergency Services Health nonprofit?

Yes.

Does Emergency Services Health get many complaints from members?

Emergency Services Health is a newcomer to the market, and doesn't have enough members for us to accurately calculate a complaints rating. We use the complaints rating of its parent fund, Police Health.

Emergency Services Health complaints rating: Low

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 Emergency Services Health'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

Emergency Services Health's gap cover performance by state

Because Emergency Services Health is a new fund and has had a very small number of claims, we display the gap cover performance of its parent fund, Police Health.

New South Wales

Above average

Australian Capital Territory

Above average

Victoria

Above average

Queensland

Above average

South Australia

Above average

Western Australia

Average

Tasmania

Below average

Northern Territory

Well below average

How many hospital agreements does Emergency Services Health 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 Emergency Services Health 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.

Emergency Services Health has

ACT

6 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 7

7 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 8

NSW

97 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 100

92 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 100

NT

2 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 2

1 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 2

Qld

51 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 58

46 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 53

SA

26 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 27

25 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 28

Tas

8 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 8

4 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 6

Vic

76 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 79

77 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 79

WA

20 private hospital agreements out of an industry maximum of 23

24 day surgery agreements out of an industry maximum of 29

Does Emergency Services Health offer any discounts?

Discount for direct debit: None

Discount for annual prepay: 3%

Total discount for annual prepay via direct debit: 3%

Youth discounts: None.

Does Emergency Services Health offer ambulance cover?

Yes. All Emergency Services Health extras, hospital and combined policies have emergency ambulance cover.

Depending on where you live, you may not need a policy with ambulance cover.

Queensland and Tasmania: Emergency ambulance services are covered by the state government.
NSW and ACT: All hospital policies come with emergency ambulance cover – so you'll be covered with any hospital or combined policy you select.
South Australia, Victoria and NT: You can buy emergency ambulance cover directly from the ambulance service. Alternatively, some health fund policies will cover ambulance in your state or territory or refund at least part of the cost of the ambulance service cover.
Rural WA: You can buy emergency ambulance cover directly from the ambulance service. Alternatively, some health fund policies will cover ambulance or refund at least part of the cost of the ambulance service cover.
Metropolitan WA: If you want to be covered for ambulance you need to buy a health insurance policy with ambulance cover.

Does Emergency Services Health offer family policies that cover adult children?

Yes, adult children are covered up to age 21 if not living with a partner and up to age 25 if in full-time study and not living with a partner.

Does Emergency Services Health let you claim online or in-app?

No online claiming. Can claim extras services via an app (iOS and Android).

Join the conversation

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