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What you need to know
Extras cover helps pay for non-hospital treatments like dental, optical, physiotherapy and more.
Most extras treatments are not covered by Medicare.
Extras cover starts at around $4 per week* – less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
The table below compares extras policies from Finder partners. It's sorted by value using the Finder score algorithm our experts use for the Finder health insurance awards. Prices are for a single person earning less than $93,000 living in Sydney, with a $750 excess - learn why this matters here.
The Finder Score ranks every health policy in our database on value for money. We updated this monthly with data provided by Ombudsman.
We consider the 38 hospital treatment categories, plus the covered extras categories and the total extras benefit. We also use the average price for each product. Here's the breakdown of factors we consider.
Factors that affect your health insurance premiums
There are several factors that will change the price of your health insurance premiums, whether you get hospital or extras cover. Here are the main ones to consider.
Private Health Insurance Rebate: The price of your policy can vary by over 25% due to rebate. It's mainly based on your age and income.
Lifetime Health Cover Loading: If you don't have hospital cover after age 31, a 2% loading will be added to the price each year you don't have it.
State: The cost of medical care is different in every state, and that's reflected in your premiums.
Policy Excess: A policy with a larger excess will have lower premiums, but you will have more out of pocket costs when you claim.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
Extras cover helps pay for medical care that's not covered by Medicare. These treatments are usually done out-of-hospital and include dental, physio, psychology, optical and chiropractic services. You must serve a waiting period before you can claim money back and there are annual cover limits (a cap on how much you can claim per year).
Hospital only
Hospital cover helps pay for treatment and surgery in a private hospital.
Extras only
Extras cover helps cover the cost of optical, dental, physio and more.
Combined
Combined coverage includes hospital and extras coverage, each tailored to your needs.
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Finder top picks: No waiting periods
ahm's lifestyle, family and super extras policies are the only extras insurance products on the market that offer zero waiting periods for general dental and optical without a special offer. Each policy also offers zero waiting periods on a range of other basic extras treatments like physiotherapy.
Top pick: Core extras
Lifestyle Extras
from $56.20 /month
Cover for 11 extras treatments
General Dental
Major Dental
Optical
Physiotherapy
Hearing aids
+7 other treatments covered
Top pick: Medium extras
Family Extras
from $60.77 /month
Cover for 13 extras treatments
General Dental
Major Dental
Optical
Physiotherapy
Hearing aids
+8 other treatments covered
Top pick: Top extras
Super Extras
from $90.85 /month
Cover for 13 extras treatments
General Dental
Major Dental
Optical
Physiotherapy
Hearing aids
+8 other treatments covered
Top picks for waiting periods
We picked these policies because they were the only eligible†extras policies on the market that offered zero waiting periods for general dental and optical (without a special offer). We arranged them from the least to the most comprehensive.
To be eligible, policies needed to be available to purchase in June 2023 from a non-restricted provider with at least a 0.5% national market share.
Quotes are based on a single individual with less than $90,000 income, $750 excess and living in Sydney.
The Comprehensive Extras category winner for 2023 is Latrobe's Core Complete Extras Package. It costs approximately $9 per week and covers all standard extras treatments, as well as nutrition, psychology, audiology, speech therapy, health appliances including blood glucose monitors and hearing aids. It also comes with unlimited emergency ambulance transportation.
The second highest ranking policy in the comprehensive extras category, Westfund's Mid Extras policy is only available when you take out a hospital policy but still provides very good value. Its cover includes a $2,500 lifetime limit on orthodontic treatment and up to $120 per policy, per calendar year to put towards antenatal and postnatal classes.
Medibank - Growing Family 60 is tailored towards families who plan to have children. It covers all the standard extras treatments as well as pregnancy compression garments, antenatal and postnatal services and more.
HBF's Flex 50 is the Medium Extras category winner. Starting from around $8 a week, it lets you split your $800 limit across 12 popular services including preventative dental, major dental, physio and dietetics.
Bupa's FLEXtras 4 Standard 50 is another high-ranking flexible extras option. The 2023 runner up costs around $9 a week and lets you tailor your extras cover to suit your needs. You'll receive 50% back at Bupa recognised providers on your selected services, up to your yearly limits.
Medibank's Healthy Start Extras came in third place. It costs around $6 per week, making it one of the cheapest policies available. You get a $500 combined limit on extras services such as physio, mental health support and chiro.
Westfund's Starter Extras option is the winner of the 2023 Basic Extras category. To get our final extras insurance scores, we added together the price and features scores and weighted them 50:50. Westfund's Starter Extras came out on top.
Bupa's Freedom Extras 60 option is the runner up in 2023 Basic Extras category. Costs start from around $7 a week and it covers general dental, optical and more.
Latrobe's Basic Extras option is the third highest ranking Basic Extras policy according to the Finder rating. Costs start from around $4 a week and it covers general dental, major dental, optical and more.
Straight up, there's no way to find the best extras cover for everyone. We all have different circumstances and will use our extras cover for different things. However, the Finder Awards are one way of figuring out which extras policies offer the best value for money. Here's how we chose the winners.
Note: Prices for the products above are based on a single person earning less than $90,000 a year in Sydney.
Best Extras Insurance Awards - Comprehensive/Medium/Core
Products were assessed by weighing their coverage level against the national average price of a singles policy. Coverage level was obtained from by assessing coverage for the 15 treatment categories in the image below. This was compared to the price of each product, with policies offering the best value scoring the highest.
Eligible policies were divided into three tiers: Core, Medium and Comprehensive, based on the criteria below. Policies were only considered for the top category they were eligible for. The policies within each tier were then ranked.
Selection Criteria
The policy must be available for new policy holders as of April 2023
An insurer may only claim one place in the final winners' list in this category
The product must not be from a restricted fund
The product must be approved by the Commonwealth Ombudsman
Funds must have at least 0.5% national market share, according to the Commonwealth Ombudsman
The product must be classed at the appropriate tier for the awards (Comprehensive/Medium/Core)
Pros and cons of extras only health insurance
Pros
A wide range of services are included, offering you multiple chances to save money
Helps you pay for prescription medications that aren't listed on the government's PBS list
It can be very cheap to get cover. Extras cover can start from around $4 per week - less than a cup of coffee
Cons
You won't be insured for a range of hospital treatments
Gap payments (or out-of-pocket costs) are likely to apply to many services
Extras coverage won't exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge or the Lifetime Health Cover loading. You'll need hospital or combined cover for that
Do you actually need extras cover? I get asked this all the time. As with any insurance, your personal circumstances hold the answer. A colleague told me her extras had paid out $916.60 from benefit claims in the past year – $270 more than the cost of her premiums over the same time. Ultimately, it's your call if you can make extras cover work for you. If the answer's 'yes', do yourself a favour by shopping around at least once a year. Finder's Awards picks and the latest introductory offers can be your guide.
The cost of extras cover varies depending on how comprehensive your policy is. Currently, the average price of a extras policy is
$15
per week*. The cost of the cheapest extras policy available today is just
$4
per week*. More expensive policies generally cover more treatments, and have greater benefits. The map and table below has details of the cost of extras cover in each state as of January 2022.
*Prices are based on a single person living in Sydney, for extras policies that cover at least ambulance and general dental.
Extras cover generally includes non-hospital services that aren't covered by Medicare, like dental and optical. The table below outlines some of the most common treatment categories.
Coverage for hearing aid devices and audiology services can be covered. You'll generally only be able to claim for hearing aids every few years (3 to 5 years is common).
Waiting periods for extras cover
Waiting periods for health insurance apply to both extras and hospital policies. You'll generally need to wait for a period of between 2 and 12 months before claiming a particular benefit. Some major treatments require waiting periods of up to 2 or more years but this is less common.
Service covered
Typical waiting period
General dental
2 months
Major dental
12 months
Osteopathy
2 months
Healthy lifestyle
6 months
Travel vaccinations
From 0
Ambulance transport
0-2 days
Optical
6-months
Physiotherapy
2 months
Chiropractic
2 months
Non-PBS medication
2 months
Health aids
Varies
Podiatry (General)
2 months
Psychology
2 months
Dietetics
2 months
Hearing Aids
12 months
Waiting periods could be longer or shorter depending on your policy. The services listed here do not represent a complete list of services covered under all extras policies. Depending on your fund and policy, you may find many other cover options to match your needs.
Extras cover with no waiting period
There are a few ways to get zero waiting periods on some extras treatments, including general dental, optical and physio.
Switching funds: If you've served your extras waiting periods with one fund, you can usually switch health funds and carry them over.
How Finder's senior insurance writer saves on extras
I've always taken out a policy that comes with no waiting periods. It means I can start claiming straight away. One time I took extras cover out I was able to claim $600 worth of benefits in a week.
Benefit limits for extras only health insurance are the maximum amounts you can claim for specific treatments each calendar year. Many funds also break these down into the following types:
Combined limits. This is where several different services are included in one shared limit, such as physiotherapy, chiropractic and remedial massage all falling under an overall physical therapy benefit.
Sub-limits. These apply to specific treatments under a certain service, such as $500 for dentures and $800 for crowns, even though they fall under a major dental benefit.
Lifetime limits. Fairly rare and generally only applied to orthodontics, this means that your limit does not renew each year, and is carried over even if you switch to a higher level of cover or switch funds.
Set benefits vs percentage benefits
Health funds use two methods to cover extras services. Set benefits apply a fixed amount to each service, such as $500 for general dental, while percentage benefits do what the name suggests and calculates the benefit as a percentage that covers all services, such as 50% back. Some pros and cons of each method are outlined below:
Cover method
Pros
Cons
Set benefits
You can customise your cover by picking a policy that pays the highest benefits for specific services.
Some funds increase the benefits each year that you continue to hold cover as a loyalty bonus.
Harder to calculate your out-of-pocket expenses, unless you know how much the provider charges for your treatment.
Percentage benefits
Provides more certainty as you know whatever the bill is a set percentage of it is covered.
You may be able to opt for a higher percentage back in exchange for paying a slightly higher premium.
No ability to prioritise specific services, since the percentage back applies to everything covered by the policy.
State of the Funds report.'N/A' signifies no activity in that state.
Why you can trust Finder's health insurance experts
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Unlike other comparison sites, we're not owned by an insurer. That means our opinions are our own and you can compare nearly every health fund in Australia on the site (and find a better deal).
We're here to help
Since 2014, we've helped 350,000+ people find health insurance by explaining your options simply. We'll never ask for your number or email to see prices. We're here to help you make a decision.
Frequently asked questions
Extras cover is a type of health insurance that helps you pay for treatments and services such as dental, physio and glasses. These aren't usually covered by Medicare and are typically done out-of-hospital.
We looked at 236 extras policies. At around $12 per month, Bupa Extras Saver offers the cheapest extras insurance cover according to our research. It only covers general dental.
No, extras insurance will not exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge. For high-earners to be exempt from the MLS you'll need private hospital cover, rather than extras. The hospital policy must have an excess of $750 or less for singles, or $1,500 or less for couples and families.
Extras benefits usually reset either on 1 January or 1 July, depending on your insurer. These dates represent the start of the calendar year or the financial year. Occasionally, it may be based on the date you took out your policy, also known as your policy anniversary. You can see details on when each fund resets extras benefits here.
There are very few people who are simply unable to get value for money from any extras cover. This is because plans can have decent benefits, like covering up to 100% of a dental check-up cost, even if other benefits are only 50% reimbursed.
With extras cover, you may also be more likely to go to the doctor and dentist, preventing much more expensive conditions from developing later. If this sounds like you, "value for money" might be breaking even or spending slightly more on health insurance than you typically do on check-ups.
Families with children can benefit from the "bulk discount" of family health cover. Medicare's dental benefits are strictly limited and will only cover preventative children's dentistry for families that are receiving other forms of government financial support.
If you're breaking even in cost, but are going to the dentist and using more health services than before, you're coming out ahead in both health and cost. This is because preventative measures, such as dental cleaning, which is included in many extras policies, mean you're less likely to need more expensive treatments later.
General dental cover, in particular, is one of the stars of any extras policy. It's available with the most inexpensive and basic plans. Some extras policies even cover 100% of the cost of up to two dental checks per year.
Children who have regular dental check-ups in general tend to be at lower risk of oral disease as they get older; and adults can also take advantage of regular checks and professional dental cleaning to help stave off more complex and expensive conditions. Health extras can start delivering benefits almost immediately, but much like other forms of insurance some of the advantages only pay off years later.
James Martin is the insurance editor at Finder. He has written on a range of insurance and finance topics for over 7 years. James often shares his insurance expertise as a media spokesperson and has appeared on Prime 7 News, WIN News, Insurance News, 7NEWS and The Guardian. He holds a Tier 1 General Insurance (General Advice) certification and a Tier 1 Generic Knowledge certification, both of which meet the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146).
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Best Health Insurance - Comprehensive Extras
Best Health Insurance - Comprehensive Extras
