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Private health insurance and Medicare both provide some level of cover for some of the costs associated with the following treatments and appliances.
Hearing aid cover is available through extras cover. You'll probably have a waiting period of around 12 months, so start looking now if your hearing is on the decline.
To get you started, these example policies from Finder partners all include rebates for hearing aids. The prices quoted are based on a single in Sydney.
*The policies listed in this table are extras only. However, in most cases these can be combined with hospital cover.
Health fund | Extras policies and annual benefit limits* | Waiting periods |
---|---|---|
ahm |
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|
Australian Unity |
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Bupa |
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|
CUA Health |
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|
GMHBA |
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|
HBF |
|
|
HCF |
|
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Health Care Insurance |
|
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hif |
|
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Latrobe Health Services |
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Medibank |
|
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Mildura Health Fund |
|
|
nib |
|
|
onemedifund |
|
|
Peoplecare |
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|
Phoenix Health Fund |
|
|
Transport Health |
|
|
Westfund |
|
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ACA Health |
|
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CBHS health fund |
|
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Defence Health |
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Doctors Health Fund |
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Navy Health |
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Police Health |
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Reserve Bank Health Society |
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RT Health |
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Teachers Health Fund |
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TUH |
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|
*The majority of the policies listed in this table are extras only. However, in most cases these can be combined with hospital cover.
Many private health insurance funds will include hearing aids and audiology on their policies. However, these services are typically only covered by comprehensive extras.
Hearing aids are typically only covered by the more comprehensive and high level extras health insurance policies. This means you will be paying for many benefits in addition to hearing aids, whether you want to or not.
As such, you should not get private health insurance just for hearing aids and audiology. However, you might want to get private health insurance for all the other benefits it offers, on top of audiology and hearing aids.
If you use a hearing aid, then look at how it is covered by private health funds when comparing policies, but remember to look at all the other costs and benefits as well. The level of audiology and hearing aid cover should be an important factor in making your choice, but so too are all the other features included in the policy.
The below table shows the average amount of cost covered toward hearing aids by fund. All figures are taken from extras cover.
Fund name (abbreviated) | Hearing aids & audiology |
---|---|
Open membership funds | |
Australian Unity | 15.20% |
BUPA | 18.30% |
CUA Health | 34.80% |
GMHBA | 24.70% |
GU Corporate | 17.00% |
HBF | 29.50% |
HCF | 28.10% |
HCI | 40.60% |
Health Partners | 31.30% |
HIF | 29.20% |
Latrobe | 13.80% |
MDHF | 17.30% |
Medibank (includes ahm) | 25.30% |
NIB | 19.00% |
Onemedifund | 23.40% |
Peoplecare | 31.70% |
Phoenix | 42.00% |
QCH | 37.60% |
St Lukes | 45.00% |
Transport Health | 23.40% |
Westfund | 38.10% |
Restricted membership funds | |
ACA | 40.80% |
CBHS | 35.20% |
Defence Health | 30.50% |
Doctors' Health | 21.60% |
Navy Health | 27.40% |
Nurses and Midwives | 42.90% |
Police Health | 33.90% |
Reserve Bank | 77.20% |
RT Health Fund | 35.10% |
Teachers Health | 34.90% |
TUH | 41.40% |
For some funds, the data does not take account of discounts at some providers or fund Dental / Optical centres.
Note: All percentages based on health fund reporting to APRA. 'n/a' signifies no activity and 100 per cent is likely to indicate small numbers (eg. only 1 episode).
Medicare doesn’t cover any of the costs of a hearing aid device. It will only cover some of the prior surgical procedures required for a specific type of hearing aid (bone conduction) if you are unable to use a conventional hearing aid, but won’t cover the cost of the device itself.
When comparing health insurance cover of audiology and hearing aids you should be aware of.
Picture: Shutterstock
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