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HBF health insurance review

Our verdict: HBF is one of Australia's largest not-for-profit funds, offering some great value hospital and extras policies. However, its Silver policies are relatively expensive.

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By

Gary Ross Hunter

&

Tim Bennett

Updated

Fact checked

Pros

  • HBF has low-priced Basic Plus policies and flexible excess options.
  • The second lowest number of complaints compared to market share of all the big health funds.
  • It's Australia's most trusted health insurer, according to Roy Morgan's 2022 Net Trust Survey.
  • One of Australia's largest not-for-profit funds.

Cons

  • HBF's Silver tier policies are not very competitive on price, with cheaper policies available from brands including Bupa and ahm.
  • There are very few physical HBF branches outside WA.

Congratulations, HBF!

HBF received the following awards in the 2024 Product Awards:

  • 'Health Insurer of the Year' - Winner
  • 'Health Insurance - Basic Hospital' - Winner
  • 'Health Insurance - Silver Hospital' - Winner
  • 'Health Insurance - Medium Extras' - Winner
  • 'Health Insurance - Bronze Hospital' - Highly Commended
  • 'Health Insurance - Gold Hospital' - Highly Commended
Full list of 2024 winners

HBF health insurance: Our verdict

HBF is very competitive on price with some of the best value hospital Basic, Bronze and Gold tier policies, as well as for basic extras coverage.

HBF is good if:

  • You want a low-priced Basic Plus hospital policy.
  • You're after a cheap extras policy that covers optical. "Basic Extras" is one of the cheapest extras cover policies available on Finder that covers optical, from around $18 a month.
  • You're looking for a cheap extras policy for hearing aids. "Complete 60" is the cheapest policy on Finder to cover hearing aids, with a $600 limit every 3 years.

HBF is not great if:

  • You need a competitively priced Silver tier hospital policy.
  • You want to discuss your coverage in person outside of Melbourne or Western Australia.

Review by our insurance and innovations editor Gary Ross Hunter.

Sign-up deals with HBF for May 2024

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What types of health insurance does HBF offer?

1 - 6 of 6
Updated regularly
Name Product Treatments Price Apply Hide Compare
Basic Hospital Plus $750/$1500 Excess
Basic Plus$750 excess
  • Rehabilitation
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Dental surgery
  • Hernia and appendix
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Pain management
  • Gynaecology
  • Lung and chest
    • +5 other treatments covered
$83.46
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Basic Hospital Plus Elevate $750/$1500 Excess
Basic Plus$750 excess
  • Rehabilitation
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Dental surgery
  • Hernia and appendix
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Pain management
  • Gynaecology
  • Lung and chest
    • +15 other treatments covered
$89.98
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Bronze Hospital Plus $750/$1500 Excess
Bronze Plus$750 excess
  • Joint reconstructions
  • Ear nose and throat
  • Blood
  • Back neck and spine
  • Dental surgery
  • Eye excluding cataracts
  • Cancer
  • Lung and chest
    • +18 other treatments covered
$102.57
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Silver Hospital $750/$1500 Excess
Silver Plus$750 excess
  • Lung and chest
  • Back neck and spine
  • Cataracts
  • Joint replacements
  • Blood
  • Dental surgery
  • Palliative care
  • Pregnancy and birth
    • +25 other treatments covered
$128.84
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Silver Hospital Plus $750/$1500 Excess
Silver Plus$750 excess
  • Lung and chest
  • Back neck and spine
  • Cataracts
  • Joint replacements
  • Blood
  • Dental surgery
  • Palliative care
  • Pregnancy and birth
    • +26 other treatments covered
$183.92
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Gold Hospital Elevate $750/$1500 Excess
Gold$750 excess
  • Cataracts
  • Joint replacements
  • Palliative care
  • Pregnancy and birth
  • Sleep studies
  • Weight loss surgery
  • Rehabilitation
  • Insulin pumps
    • +30 other treatments covered
$272.77
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
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1 - 6 of 6
Updated regularly
Name Product Treatments Price Apply Hide Compare
Urgent Ambulance
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
$4.86
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Basic Extras
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
$20.39
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Flex 50
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
    • +3 other treatments covered
$36.57
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Flex 60
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
    • +3 other treatments covered
$55.34
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Complete 60
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
    • +6 other treatments covered
$65.48
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
Top 70
Extras cover
  • General Dental
  • Major Dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial Massage
  • Hearing aids
    • +6 other treatments covered
$116.44
per month
Go to Site
All treatments
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HBF health insurance complaints

We looked at the 2022 Ombudsman health insurance complaints. Here's how HBF stacked up:

  • Proportionally, HBF had one of the lowest number of complaints than other large health funds.
  • HBF didn't quite get first place, it was second to Medibank (ahm) which had 19.30% of overall complaints versus a 27.5% market share.
This chart shows the weighted volume of complaints received by each health fund, according to the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The lower the number, the better. Only non-restricted funds with a national market share of at least 0.1% are included here. HBF is sixth overall in this ranking. The weighting ensures that funds are compared fairly; larger funds serve more customers so can potentially get more complaints.

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