Health Insurance Tasmania

Who wants to know about their health insurance options in Tasmania? Find out what health funds are available and compare policies

While the benefits available under Medicare are numerous, private health insurance provides additional advantages to those covered while having a wider social effect of easing the strain on the public healthcare system. It's for both these reasons that the Australian government has offered an incentive in the form of a government rebate to encourage people to take out health insurance with a private fund.

Private health insurance is generally available in two types. The first, hospital insurance, allows you to select a hospital and doctor of your choice while also receiving cover for ancillary expenses like accommodation, theatre fees, pharmaceuticals and more. It also allows policy holders to avoid the long waiting lists for surgical procedures that are encountered in public hospitals. The second is extras insurance, which provides cover for non-hospital related treatments like optical, dental, physical therapy, and ambulance transport.

Find out about the policies available in Tasmania

What is private health insurance?

Private health insurance is divided into two main areas of health care:

• Hospital cover. Depending on your level of cover, this pays for your accommodation and medical costs as a private patient in a private or shared room in private or public hospital. It allows you to choose your own doctor, hospital and often your time of admission, and it covers the 25% of the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) fee for in-hospital medical costs not covered by Medicare.
• Extras cover. This helps to cover the cost of ancillary services such as optical, dental, chiropractic and physiotherapy. You can select the extras you wish to be covered for, but benefit limits apply (i.e. a set benefit amount per year per household), depending on the level of cover you choose.

Which health funds do Tasmanian residents have cover with?

You can use this interactive chart to see who the most popular health funds are in Tasmania by market share. Additionally you can view the top providers in the other states and territories in Australia, as well as the top 6 national leaders. Please note this chart only reflects health funds that have a 2% share of the market or higher.

How does the cost of health insurance in Tasmania compare to the rest of Australia?

The cost of health insurance varies from state to state across Australia, with the average policy costing in Tasmania:

• Hospital only: $4,605.61 for families and $2139.78 for singles
• Extras only: $1,826.31 for families and $834.73 for singles

How does ambulance cover vary?

Ambulance cover also varies from state to state across Australia:

• NSW, ACT, Victoria, WA and NT only provide free ambulance transport to holders of certain concession cards (including Health Care and Pensioner Concession Cards and Commonwealth Seniors Health Cards).
• South Australia offers free ambulance services only to Department of Veterans Affairs Gold Card holders.
• In Tasmania and Queensland the state governments provide free ambulance services to all their residents.

This is only for ambulance services within those states, though, so if you wish to be covered while you are interstate, you would need to look at taking out private health insurance that includes ambulance cover.

Contact an adviser and compare health insurance Tasmania options

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