Ends on or before 31 July 2025. T&Cs and limits apply. Combines with HBF's up to 14 weeks free offer. No extra steps are needed to benefit from both.
If you're looking for the best health insurance in Australia, it's basically impossible to get a single answer. Hospital vs extras, price, how much you're covered for, benefit limits, waiting periods and more – there's a lot to consider.
To give you a starting point, we've hand-picked 7 policies based on 400+ plans. Our data sources include the Finder Health Insurance Awards, the Ombudsman and APRA, plus customer reviews from the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards.
HBF Flex 50 won Finder's Medium Extras cover award in both 2023 and 2024. This is because it gives you $800 to split across a bunch of benefits, including dental. You can either split the $800 or use it entirely on dental. For a cheap policy, that's a huge benefit - most policies at this price point only give you a few hundred dollars of benefits.
Pros
Cons
Bronze Plus Simple Hospital $750 Excess + Top Extras
From
$48.78/week
From
$48.78/week
This combined hospital and extras policy could be good for complete families. Bronze hospital can a good starting point for a growing family, because is covers a lot of treatments relevant to both adults and kids, like 'ear, nose and throat', 'tonsils, adenoids and grommets', and 'bone, joint and muscle'.
Bupa's Bronze Plus Simple Hospital got a highly commended in the bronze category of the 2025 Finder Health Insurance Awards, so it is one of the best value products on the market. Plus, there's no excess for kids.! As for extras, Bupa's Top Extras policy covers orthodontics, with dental check-ups free in the Bupa partner network.
Pros
Cons
HCF HOSPITAL BRONZE PLUS $750 EXCESS
From
$24.03/week
From
$24.03/week
HCF has now won the Finder Award for best value bronze policy for 2 years running. It scored higher than all 100+ bronze plans we assessed. It covers 25 hospital treatments – 7 more than a standard bronze policy - including lunch and chest, dental surgery and podiatric surgery.
The not-for-profit also has a really strong record of giving its money back towards members - of the open health funds, it returns the highest percentage of premiums to its members as benefits. In fact it can in 3rd overall ont hat metric, beaten only by Teachers and Police Health, both of which have resricted membership.
Pros
Cons
ahm health insurance
Whatever you're looking for in an extras policy, you'll probably find it from ahm, and at a decent price. ahm almost swept the 2025 Finder Awards in the extras categories, winning 3 of the 4 different awards on offer. In addition, ahm offers some of the better flexible extras products on the market, which let you choose exactly what you want to cover. So even if there isn't a policy that suits your needs exactly, the choosable policies can help you get there.
Thanks to the range of great value policies, as well as the additional offer of the flexible choosable policies, ahm is an easy top pick for flexible extras. Add to this the fact that ahm has a standing offer to waive 2 and 6 months waiting period on the lifestyle, family and super extras products, and you have one very flexible extras offering.
Pros
Cons
HCF Hospital Basic Plus $750 Excess
From
$20.60/week
From
$20.60/week
Basic hospital cover is often only useful for tax, offering essentially no actual cover. This policy bucks that trend by offering cover for 9 treatments including joint reconstructions, hernia and appendix, gynaecology, emergency ambulance and more. This policy won the 2025 Finder Health Insurance Award for best basic hospital cover, which means it's great value for money as well.
Of course, like all basic policies, it will exempt you from the Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) and Lifetime health cover loading (LHC).
Pros
Cons
Silver Plus Standard Hospital $750 Excess
From
$30.55/week
From
$30.55/week
Silver Hospital cover is a great option for anyone wanting very comprehensive cover, but without going full ball on a gold policy. Maybe you don't need cover for child birth anymore? A silver policy might be just the ticket.
As far as value goes, RT Health Silver Plus Standard Hospital is the best we found, winning the 2025 Finder Award in the Silver Hospital category. It covers more treatments for less money, and is an open membership, not-for-profit health fund owned by HCF, which took out most of the other hospital awards in 2025. All that to say, it's a great place to start your health insurance comparison journey.
Pros
Cons
Qantas Insurance
Qantas' silver hospital policy was highly commended in the 2024 Finder health insurance awards because it offered some of the best value coverage among other silver hospital policies. Qantas is also offering new customers up to 150,000 Qantas Points over 6 months when you join an eligible combined policy by 30 June – the more comprehensive your cover, the more points you'll earn. T&Cs apply. You also get 1 Qantas point per $1 spent on premiums.
Pros
Cons
Medibank Gold Protect + Top Extras 60
From
$81.08/week
From
$81.08/week
For seniors, gold hospital insurance gives you the peace of mind that everything treatment category is included. You don't know what's around the corner, and the last thing you need is to not be covered for a treatment when you need it. With that in mind, Medibank has the cheapest gold policy among Australia's big 6 health funds, a 24/7 telephone nurse service, and a health concierge to gives you customised advice before you go in for treatment. That's a tonne of peace of mind for a very reasonable price.
Additionally, we believe Medibank offers some of the most robust extras policies for older Australians, with Top Extras 60 covering you for a huge range of treatments including hearing aids, blood glucose monitors and blood pressure monitors, eye therapy consultations, podiatry and more.
Pros
Cons
advanced hospital gold + Lifestyle Extras
From
$93.54/week
From
$93.54/week
This combo of ahm products offers a great comprehensive coverage when looking specifically at mental health benefits, especially for those that need help sooner rather than later. For hospital cover, psychiatric care is only covered under gold tier hospital policies. This is because psychiatric care can often involve extended hospital stays, which quickly gets very expensive, even more than complex surgery. ahm's gold policy covers this - while it's not the cheapest gold policy on the market, it does include a 24/7 nurse telehealth service and a 24/7 mental health support line, giving you the ability to talk to someone at any time of day.
Additionally, ahm extras prodicts offer great coverage for psycology and councelling services. Most importantly, the lifestyle, family and super extras policies have no waiting period on these services, so you can claim right away. This is a standing offer, and is unique across the industry.
Pros
Cons
Basic Extras
From
$5.19/week
From
$5.19/week
Extras is arguably the best health insruance type for someone in their 20s, or even in their 30s. Extras makes new glasses and trips to the dentist cheaper, as well as giving you access to physio and other services that are really useful for anyone still active (or, in your 30s, when things start not working well).
HBF Basic Extras was highly commended in the 2025 Finder Awards Core Extras category. That makes it a top 3 core extras product for value for money - but of the 3 policies in that list, it's the one that covers the best range of policies for young folks. Basic Extras includes tones of cover for preventative and general restorative dental, plus optical, physio, ambulance and more.
Pros
Cons
Medibank Gold Protect + Growing Family 70
From
$85.19/week
From
$85.19/week
All gold-tier policies include cover for child birth in a private hospital, but this one packs heaps of perks you won't find elsewhere, including cover for IVF treatments, 24/7 access to a telephone nurse service, and continuity of care, which means you can keep seeing your chosen obstetrician throughout your pregnancy. Medibank also offers a Health Concierge service, and has partnered with Monash Uni researchers to improve research around prenatal healthcare.
All of this is great, but what about the price? Well, Medibank's gold hospital policy took a highly commended in the 2025 Finder Health Insurance Awards for the Gold category, and is the cheapest among Australia's big 6 private health funds. Also, its Growing Family extras product covers prenatal and antenatal care while being great value.
Pros
Cons
The median time to leave the emergency department in NSW is now 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty stable. Learn how to check waiting times for your local hospital.
The Medicare Safety Net provides extra financial support to people who incur high out-of-pocket medical costs. Learn more.
Extras health insurance comes in hundreds of varieties...literally. Learn more and compare extras cover from dozens of providers before you buy.
ahm offers a broad range of policies with affordable premiums, but if you’re looking for the lowest price possible, cheaper options are available.
With reasonable prices and strong benefits, several Medibank policies were highly commended in the 2024 Finder Health Insurance Awards.
Our experts compared 40+ funds and analysed hundreds of policies to help you find the best health insurance.
Get affordable cover for ambulance transport if you are not already covered under Medicare. Compare quotes from Australian funds to decide which level of protection is best for you.
It's not possible to skip waiting periods for health insurance but there are exceptions.
There are a number of reasons why taking out private health cover now rather than later can be a smart thing for singles to do.
Learn how to get cheap health insurance and what you can expect for your money.