Get $600 worth of dental, physio + more for 13 bucks
Finder's insurance expert Gary Ross Hunter loves to walk the talk – see how our writer scored hundreds of dollars of health savings in less than a week.
I just got over $600 worth of extras benefits in 5 days with my ahm Lifestyle Extras policy – and it only cost me $13.
This isn't some hack or loophole the health insurer doesn't want you to know about, and it didn't take much time or effort.
Here's how I did it in 2 easy steps:
Step 1 – I took out an extras policy with no waiting period
ahm lifestyle Extras has no 2- or 6-month waiting periods with a bunch of its extras benefits. This includes common out-of-hospital services such as:
- Routine dental
- Optical (frames, prescription lenses and contact lenses included)
- Physio, chiro, osteo
- Remedial massage
- Psychology
- Pharmacy
Step 2 – I started claiming (again and again)
Here are the 5 ways I saved cash in as many days:
- $174 towards dental benefits. I took out a policy on the Monday and booked a no-gap dental check-up with one of ahm's participating providers, Pacific Smiles. The appointment was for Wednesday. The check-up cost me nothing.
- $200 towards optical. On Tuesday, I went to Specsavers after work and got a new pair of prescription glasses for $200. This was fully covered by my extras policy.
- $31 towards a remedial massage. On Wednesday, I went for a remedial massage. It cost me $75 in total but $31 was covered by ahm.
- $126 towards physio, chiro and osteo. This required a little planning but I managed to get physio, chiro and osteo over the course of a week. The consultations were around $130 each and ahm paid $126 in total.
- $71 towards a psychology consultation. Like many insurers, ahm covers psychology, counselling and hypnotherapy. It's something I've always felt would be beneficial but was never totally comfortable doing through the public system, since you generally need a referral from your GP. The consultation cost me $250 but $71 of that was covered by extras.
In total, I got $602 worth of benefits in just under 1 week.
I could have saved even more as the policy also covers non-PBS pharmacy items, health improvement courses like quit-smoking classes and weight-loss classes; but I didn't need any of them. In 12 months' time, I'll also be covered for complex and major dental.
You can do this too with an ahm Lifestyle Extras policy or compare other out of hospital policies here.
