Latrobe Health Insurance Review

Who is Latrobe Health?

Latrobe Health Services was founded in 1951 to provide quality health care to their members. As a Members Own Health Fund, Latrobe is part of a network of nineteen health insurers providing member-focused benefits to over 2.5 million Australians.

Latrobe Health is a not-for-profit health fund, and by taking out cover with them you'll enjoy a reduced Medicare Levy Surcharge as well as government rebates on your private health insurance premiums.

What health insurance options does Latrobe offer?

Latrobe Health Services offers five different tiers of hospital coverage:

Hospital cover

• Healthy Start Hospital Package. From around $90 per month.
• Bronze Hospital. From around $93 per month.
• Bronze Plus Hospital. From around $97 per month.
• Silver Hospital. From around $118 per month.
• Silver Plus Hospital. From around $165 per month.

Extras cover

Latrobe Health Services offers seven different extras policies you can purchase as a standalone policy:

• Basic Extras. This is a basic policy that covers general dental, major dental, a few therapies and pharmacy. It offers mainly set limits, meaning you'll get a rebate equal to a specific amount rather than a percentage of the overall cost, regardless of how much the service costs. These limits are quite small e.g $500 for dental and $250 chiro, physio and podiatry.
• Core Families Extras. This covers general dental, optical, exercise physiology, antenatal and postnatal classes, acupuncture, myotherapy, osteopathy, psychology, chiropractic and massage (with a registered provider).
• Core Singles and Couples. This is similar to Core Families but comes with a dietician and doesn't cover speech therapies, antenatal and postnatal classes or air compressor pumps.
• Core Extras. This covers quite a lot, including general dental, major dental, orthodontics, a range of therapies, pharmacy, dietician, acupuncture, optical, visiting nurses, health screenings and more.
• Premier Family Care Extras. Top extras cover tailored to families meaning you get antenatal and postnatal classes, pregnancy compression garments as well as important services like dental and optical.
• Premier Singles and Couples. Comprehensive extras cover but excludes pregnancy and family related services so you're not paying for something you don't need.
• Premier Extras. Similar to other levels of premier cover except you'll also receive treatment for visiting nurses, lymphoedema garments, prostheses (non-surgically implanted) and health screenings such as mammograms, bone density testing and mole mapping.

Combined cover

• Healthy Start Package. This is a combined hospital and extras package, providing cover for treatment in a public hospital and restricted cover for treatment in a private hospital. It also comes with cover for limited general dental, chiro, physio and more. An age-based discount may apply.

Member offers

Besides the benefits of your health insurance, you receive the following for signing up with Latrobe Health Services:

• Government rebate. You can receive a significant rebate on your private insurance premiums depending on your income levels. The lower your income and greater your age, the higher the percentage you'll receive back.
• Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS). If your income is more than $90,000 and you don't have private health insurance, you'll have a levy raised of 1-1.5% of your income. Depending on your income, it may be cheaper to pay premiums than the MLS.
• LHC loading. Taking a private insurance prevents loading fees (which kick in after 30 if you haven't had private health insurance) which can be as high as 70% of the original premium cost.

How to make a claim

There are two ways to claim on your extras. You can either:

• Claim electronically. Some extras, including chiropractic, dental, osteopathy, physiotherapy and more, can be claimed via HICAPS or Health Point using your member card. You can also download Latrobe's mobile app to make a claim.
• Claim by mail. All extras can be claimed in person or by mail by either filling out a claim form and mailing it to Latrobe or by visiting a Latrobe branch.