Bronze health insurance

What you need to know

• Bronze hospital insurance helps cover 18 different treatment categories in the private hospital system.
• The cheapest bronze policies start from around $25 a week.
• Bronze hospital cover includes treatments like joint reconstructions, gynaecology, and ear, nose and throat.

Pros and cons of Bronze health insurance

Pros

• Covers a wide range of common hospital treatments at an affordable price
• Includes cover for joint reconstructions, diabetes management, and miscarriage and termination of pregnancy
• Lots of 'Bronze plus' policies exist that give you access to specific Silver treatments on top of standard Bronze coverage

Cons

• Not as comprehensive as either Silver or Gold cover
• Doesn't cover some important treatments like pregnancy and birth, joint replacements or hospital dental surgery
• If you only need hospital insurance to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge or Lifetime Health Care loading, you can save by opting for a Basic policy instead

Compare bronze health insurance policies

The following table shows insurers from Finder partners that offer Bronze health insurance policies. All prices are based on a single individual with less than $93,000 income and living in Sydney.

What are the hospital health insurance tiers?

Each of the different health insurance tiers has to cover a standardised set of treatments. Here's a quick summary of each tier.

*Average prices updated July 2024, in line with Finder's database of health insurance policies. Prices are based on a single individual with less than $97,000 income and living in Sydney with a $750 excess.

• Show full table of treatments

  Clinical category	Basic	Bronze	Silver	Gold
  Rehabilitation	R	R	R
  Hospital psychiatric services	R	R	R
  Palliative care	R	R	R
  Brain and nervous system
  Eye (not cataracts)
  Ear, nose and throat
  Tonsils, adenoids and grommets
  Bone, joint and muscle
  Joint reconstructions
  Kidney and bladder
  Male reproductive system
  Digestive system
  Hernia and appendix
  Gastrointestinal endoscopy
  Gynaecology
  Miscarriage and termination of pregnancy
  Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy for cancer
  Pain management
  Skin
  Breast surgery (medically necessary)
  Diabetes management (excluding insulin pumps)
  Heart and vascular system
  Lung and chest
  Blood
  Back, neck and spine
  Plastic and reconstructive surgery (medically necessary)
  Dental surgery
  Podiatric surgery (provided by a registered podiatric surgeon)
  Implantation of hearing devices
  Cataracts
  Joint replacements
  Dialysis for chronic kidney failure
  Pregnancy and birth
  Assisted reproductive services
  Weight loss surgery
  Insulin pumps
  Pain management with a device
  Sleep studies

'Bronze plus' policies

If you see a policy listed as a 'Bronze Plus' policy, then it covers all the treatments required for the Bronze tier, but it also covers a few more. This is typically a treatment from the Silver tier, though it could include a treatment from a Gold tier.

Bronze Plus policies often offer really amazing value - the winner of the Finder health insurance awards in the Bronze tier is almost always a Bronze Plus policy. This is because the fund can tailor a policy to a particular type of person, rather than having that policy be dictated to by the government.

If you have a look through the policies on Finder, you might find a Bronze Plus policy that gives you treatment for one particular treatment you need from a higher tier. This means you could get the coverage you need from a higher tier without having to pay for the entire Silver or Gold tier. Nice.

Finder award winners 2024: Best bronze hospital

Highly commended

Who could benefit from Bronze cover?

Bronze cover is a good starting point for anyone looking to get hospital cover. I say this because the very bottom tier - 'Basic' - doesn't have to cover anything at all! It's really only good for tax avoidance in my opinion. With Bronze, you get a decent amount of covered treatments for just a little bit more per month than a virtually junk basic policy. That said, there are different reasons you might benefit from a Bronze policy.

• Young people: If you're fit, healthy and don't plan on having children, a Bronze hospital policy may provide you with more than adequate cover for your needs. For example, bronze covers you for joint reconstructions; bone, joint and muscle; digestive system; male reproductive system and more.
• Women: Bronze policies covers a lot of women-centric treatments including cancer treatment, breast reconstruction, gynaecologym as well as miscarriage and pregnancy termination. The only catch is it doesn't cover child birth, which is the domain of the gold tier.
• Young families:Bronze tier policies are available for singles, couples or as family policies, and are particularly well-suited for a young family. It covers Ear, nose and throat; Tonsils, adenoids and grommets; Bone, joint and muscle and more, for a start.
• High income earners: If you earn more than $93,000 per year, you'll be charged the Medicare Levy Surcharge if you don't have hospital cover. Any hospital policy will exempt you, but a Bronze policy will cover you for a range of common hospital treatments at the same time. Basic policies are just so awful. Please don't get one.

Who might not benefit from Bronze cover?

I can only offer you general advice, but there are certain folks who might not be best covered by a bronze policy. Here are some of them.

• People looking to get pregnant: If you want to give birth in the private system, you'll need a silver plus or gold policy that covers pregnancy and child birth.
• People with a specific condition: If you need cover for a condition that's not covered until the silver or gold tier, then a plain Jane bronze policy ain't gonna work for you. You might be able to sniff out a bronze plus policy with cover for your condition, but if not you'll need to go up a tier or two.
• Old folks with complex needs: As we get older, our health needs get more complex and harder to cover. If you're an older person and you want private coverage for anything that could go wrong, you might want to consider a more comprehensive policy than the bronze tier.

Why you can trust Finder's health insurance experts

Frequently asked questions

• What is the Bronze tier of health insurance?

  Bronze is one of the 4 tiers of private hospital insurance cover in Australia. The basic tier covers less than bronze, while silver and gold cover more than bronze. Bronze policies offer pretty good value for money, with at least 18 treatment categories covered. They're a good place to start comparing health insurance policies, although they don't suit everyone.

• What is the difference between bronze and basic?

  Basic tier policies aren't required to cover any treatment categories by the government. That makes them only really useful for tax avoidance - we consider them to be not much better than junk insurance most of the time. Bronze policies are only a little more expensive, but cover you for 18 or the 38 treatment categories that can be covered by private hospital insurance. If you're thinking about a basic policy, it's almost always a better idea to upgrade to a bronze policy instead.

• Are Bronze plus policies good?

  Bronze plus policies cover all 18 treatment categories of the bronze tier, plus at least one more from a high category. That makes them more customisable to your exact health needs, and often offer great value. Bronze plus policies almost always win the Finder award for the best bronze hospital policy, which is very telling!