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Optical health cover

Most extras policies include optical, to help you get glasses with insurance. You can get optical cover from around $5 a week*.

What you need to know:

  • Prescription glasses and contact lenses aren't covered by Medicare.
  • An extras policy with optical cover can help pay for the cost of glasses and contact lenses from around $5 a week*.
  • Optical insurance policies will all have a maximum annual benefit, as well as a 2-month waiting period.

*Prices are based on a single person living in Sydney earning less than $97,000 a year.

What optometry costs will your health fund cover?

While cover will vary depending on your policy, you can receive cover for:

  • Check ups and examinations
  • Glasses and contact lenses
  • Eye disease
  • Eye surgery for medical issues
  • Vision therapy
  • Laser eye surgery
Medicare provides cover for some of these benefits, but for full cover you'll need private health insurance.
Optometry serviceDoes Medicare cover it?Can private health insurance cover it?
Check ups and examinationsYesYes
Eye surgery for medical issuesYesYes
Eye diseaseYesYes
Glasses and contact lensesNoYes
Vision therapyNoYes, as an extra
Laser eye surgeryNoYes, as an extra

Extras policies that cover optical

Here are some extras policies with optical cover from Finder partners. All prices are based on a single individual with less than $97,000 income and living in Sydney.

1 - 10 of 73
Name and lozenges Finder Score Treatments Price
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$23.10
per month
Go to SiteView details
Frank Easy Extras
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$28.30
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$29.60
per month
Go to SiteView details
Basic Extras
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$32.18
per month
Go to SiteView details
Starter Extras
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$32.20
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$35.95
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
Want a $50 gift card when you join & maintain eligible Extras? Plus, get 2&6 month waits waived on extras. New members only. T&Cs apply. Excludes Healthy Living Extras.
$36.90
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
Want a $50 gift card when you join & maintain eligible Extras? Plus, get 2&6 month waits waived on extras. New members only. T&Cs apply. Excludes Healthy Living Extras.
$36.95
per month
Go to SiteView details
HCF FLEX MY EXTRAS
Extras cover
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$38.90
per month
Go to SiteView details
Finder score
  • General dental
  • Major dental
  • Optical
  • Physiotherapy
  • Chiropractic
  • Psychology
  • Remedial massage
  • Hearing aids
$42.70
per month
Go to SiteView details
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Showing 10 of 73 results

Finder Score - Health Insurance Extras

Each month we analyse over 10,000 extras insurance products and rate each one on price and features. What we end up with is a nice round number out of 10 that helps you compare extras cover a bit faster.

We want to compare apples to apples, not apples to apple pie. It doesn't make sense to compare a top extras policy with coverage for hearing aids and braces against a policy designed only for dental. So we've separated all the extras policies on the market into pools and categories. Once in their pools and categories, each product gets a price score and a features score, which are then combined to give the Final Score.

Read the full Finder Score methodology

Why compare health insurance with Finder?

  • We don't ask for your phone or email to see prices.

  • With 1 click, you can open your results to nearly every fund in Australia.

  • You pay the same price as going direct – we charge no fees.

Are glasses and contact lenses covered by health insurance?

Australian private health funds provide cover for a wide range of optical services and treatments through their extras cover policies. some of these include:

  • Prescription glasses and contact lenses
  • Rebates on prescription sunglasses and prescription swimming goggles
  • Eye check-ups

Health insurance for major eye surgery

If you want insurance for major optical procedures, you'll need a more comprehensive plan that you would need for basic optical. If you want health insurance for cataract surgery, you’ll need to take out hospital cover. Specifically, you'll need a gold-tier hospital policy.

If you want health insurance for laser eye surgery, you'll need a specific top-tier extras package that covers laser eye treatment. There are only a handful of products on the market that cover this, mostly because the cost of laser eye surgery is so high. Be sure to check our guides on this before you make a decision.

Peta Taylor's headshot

"I was in need of a new pair of glasses and knew that ahm has an extras policy with a no waiting period on optical. I took out a policy, got my eye check and 2 new pairs of glasses and was able to claim the full cost back immediately. The policy cost me $16 and I was able to claim back $200, which was the exact cost of my new glasses. "

Peta Taylor
Finder crew member

What should I look for in a health insurance policy?

There are some terms and conditions you should look out for when finding an insurance policy.

Exclusions

Exclusions are the things that aren't covered by your private health fund. Some frequently encountered exclusions are:

  • Treatment outside of Australia. If you want to head abroad for cheaper laser eye surgery, for example, most health funds won't cover that. You might consider medical tourism insurance instead.
  • No cover unless there is a specific, named health issue involved.
  • No cover for additional costs like administration fees.

Limits

These are the maximum amounts your policy will pay in benefits, or how much you can claim before your benefits cap out. Your policy may have yearly or lifetime limits for a number of treatment sessions or an amount of money paid out.

  • If the cost of a treatment is more than the limit of your policy, you will only be covered up to that limit and must pay the rest yourself. This is sometimes refered to as the 'gap'.
  • In the case of family or couple policies there may be limits for individuals as well as limits for the group as a whole.
  • Some no-gap optical policies do exist, if you would prefer not to pay any extra.

Excess

A health insurance excess is an additional amount you must pay when making a claim. If more than one excess applies, you must pay the total sum of all applicable excesses. Generally, excess' are only a feature of hospital policies, as well as combined policies.

  • Age related excess. The older you are the higher your risk levels. Certain age groups have this additional excess.
  • Hospital excess. If someone on your policy goes to hospital this excess will apply to cover the additional costs involved.
  • Special excess. Pre-existing conditions, ongoing health issues or a history of making many claims will drive up your special excess.
Tim Bennett's headshot
Written by

Insurance expert

Tim Bennett is a Finder insurance & utilities expert. For over 10 years he's reported on news, politics, finance and other topics as a journalist and radio presenter. Tim's roles have included radio news reader and breakfast at the ABC, news producer for SBS and producer for Fairfax Media. Tim regularly appears as a health insurance expert on programs like Sunrise and SBS news, as well as in the Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail and more. See full bio

Tim's expertise
Tim has written 114 Finder guides across topics including:
  • Personal finance
  • Financial comparison
  • Health insurance
  • General insurance
  • Life insurance
Richard Laycock's headshot
Co-written by

Editor

Richard Laycock is Finder’s insights editor after spending the last five years writing and editing articles about insurance. His musings can be found across the web including on MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University and The Missouri School of Journalism and has a Tier 1 Certification in General Advice for Life Insurance. See full bio

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