Seniors health insurance

Don’t get left on a public hospital waiting list; get seniors health insurance and skip the queues.

Protect your savings and your health by finding a seniors health insurance policy that doesn’t break the bank.

Use Finder’s comparison tool to compare hundreds of policies side-by-side so you’re only paying for benefits you need, such as cover for joint replacement, cardiology and other hospital costs, without paying for anything unnecessary like cover for pregnancy.

If you’re ready to dive in, here are a quick couple of tips for using the comparison tool below:

• When asked “What's most important to you?”, select “Better Cover” from the drop-down menu
• Complete the rest of the questionnaire, which includes telling us “Who needs cover”, the “Type of cover” and your “Postcode or suburb”
• Once you’ve hit “Search Policies” and are on the results page, filter your results by selecting the services that are important to you such as “Heart surgery”, “Joint replacement” and “Pre-existing conditions”

Compare health insurance quotes for seniors in just a few clicks

Review costs, compare cover and apply online.

Are you switching health funds or getting a policy for the first time?

Before going any further, it’s important to know whether you’re getting cover for the first time or looking to change health funds. Which situation best describes you?

What should you consider before you switch?

If you’ve already got cover and you’re looking to switch funds, you’ll need to ask yourself why you’re switching. Are you trying to save money or have your needs changed?

• Are you trying to save money? If you’re trying to save money, make sure it’s not to the detriment of your cover. If you’ve had a policy for a while, your benefit levels may be higher than those offered on newer products. Before you switch to any policy, make sure you’ve compared those limits to make sure you’re not locking yourself into a worse product. What you’re saving yourself in the short term by switching to a cheaper policy could end up costing you more in the long run.
• Have your needs changed? As you get older, your health insurance needs change. You may have been on a top hospital policy, with pregnancy, which you no longer need. Conversely, you may have had a basic policy, which does not serve your growing needs.

What about waiting periods?

The good news is you won’t have to re-serve any waiting periods for items that your previous policy covered. However, if the policy you’re switching to has higher benefit limits or cover for treatments not covered by your original policy, you will have to serve those waiting periods.

Do seniors need health insurance or is Medicare good enough?

We’re lucky to live in a country where everyone has access to hospital cover with little to no out-of-pocket costs thanks to Medicare. Before taking out a health insurance policy, you should weigh up the pros and cons of having private cover, as you might be better off just sticking with the public system. Some items to consider when weighing up public vs private hospital as a senior include the following:

Medicare doesn’t cover everything

While Medicare definitely has its pros in regards to hospital cover, it has more cons than pros in regards to extras cover. Extras cover is there to cover you for treatments that fall outside of the auspices of hospital cover such as optical, dental and physio.

Public vs private waiting times for procedures

If you are going to go public, aside from not having access to a private room, you’ll undoubtedly be on a hospital waiting list. While both public and private hospital have waiting times for elective procedures, those times can be drastically shorter when you go private.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Private health insurance use in Australian hospitals 2006–07 to 2016–17

How does the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card work?

Once you turn 65, the Australian government officially considers you a senior and you may be eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). This is a concession card for older Australians that allows you to access cheaper pharmaceuticals and government-funded medical services. The eligibility requirements and benefits you can claim with this card are outlined below:

• Is there an asset or income test?

  There is no asset test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, but there is an adjusted taxable income (ATI) test that has the following eligibility conditions:

  Commonwealth Seniors Health Card income test	What factors define my adjusted taxable income?
  Single seniors. ATI must be less than $51,500 p.a. to qualify. Senior couples. ATI must be less than $82,400 p.a. to qualify.	Taxable income Fringe benefits Pension payments or other benefits Foreign income Reportable super contributions Investment losses Child support

What should you look for in a policy if you’re over 65?

It’s not as easy as finding a health fund and clicking on the seniors health insurance button because none of them have a policy called “seniors health insurance” or “health insurance for seniors”.

Health insurance falls into two categories: hospital or extras.

What do you need in a hospital policy?

Deciding whether you want a hospital, an extra or a combined policy will come down to your personal circumstances. However, hospital has the big ticket items that are relevant to seniors. These include cover for the following:

Notice anything missing from this list that would normally be covered by a top hospital policy? Yep, you guessed it: pregnancy. When an insurer or comparison site refers to a seniors policy, what they’re really saying is: “Here is our top hospital policy minus cover for pregnancy, obstetrics, IVF, etc.”

Different tiers of hospital cover

While this is set to change in 2019, as it stands, hospital insurance is broken into four tiers: top, medium, basic and public. As a general rule, if you’re a senior, you’re going to want to look for a top hospital policy as it provides you with the greatest access to the widest range of procedures and treatments.

What do you need from an extras policy?

Just like choosing the right hospital policy, find an extras policy that provides services that are useful to your life stage are important. Some benefits to keep an eye out for include the following:

Of course, this is just a guide to the type of cover you can expect. Don’t assume that your policy will cover everything listed above. It’s important to check the fine print to make sure you’re fully aware of what is and isn’t included.

What does the best seniors policy look like?

While you won’t find a “seniors” policy on the market, there are a number of key features you should look for when buying health insurance in later life. First things first, you’re generally going to want top cover. Next, you’re going to want to look for policies that provide a high level of cover for relevant treatments such as heart surgery, major eye surgery and joint replacement.

If you’re looking to have cover for out-of-hospital treatments, you’re going to want to look for an extras policy that provides a good level of cover for dental (both general and major), along with optical, physio, health aids (such as hearing aids and blood glucose monitors) and ambulance.

Using the health insurance finder comparison*, our top picks from the funds we have in our panel would be the following:

Low Price.
HCF Premium hospital $500 excess + Gold extras

High Value.
HCF Premium hospital $500 excess + Platinum extras

Comprehensiveness.
nib Premier Plus $500 excess

At Finder, we’re here to help you make the best choice and not just spriuk our partners, so here are our top picks from non-partners:

• Phoenix Health Top Hospital $500 Excess & Top Extras
• Healthcare Insurance Premier Package $1000 excess
• Peoplecare Premium Hospital $500 Excess and High Extras

• How did we pick these policies?

  Finder’s engine provides you with product recommendations based on its own algorithm and on what selections you make when filling in the form. For the purposes of this search, we used our engine to look for hospital and extras policy for a single man in NSW looking for better cover. Once the initial results were returned, we filtered the search to emphasise some of the features we thought more relevant to seniors: heart surgery, palliative care, major eye surgery, joint replacement, general dental, major dental, optical, physiotherapy, hearing aids, glucose monitors and ambulance cover.

How much does it cost for seniors?

Health insurance is community rated, which means no matter whether you’re 18 or 88, you’re going to pay the same amount for the same level of cover. How much your health insurance will cost will come down to the following:

• Whether you choose extras only, hospital only or a combination cover
• The level of cover – top hospital costs more than basic hospital
• The brand
• Where you live
• How much you’ll be hit by the LHC if you’re getting cover for the first time

On average, a single hospital + extras policy can cost from $67.15 per month to $277.41 per month for a female living in NSW.

*Prices are based on a female aged 70 years or older, that earns less than $90,000 looking for a combined Hospital and Extras policy. To find out what you would pay, just enter your details in the quote engine above.

Are seniors eligible for a health insurance rebate?

Yes and if you’re over the age of 65, your private health insurance rebate increases, provided you're not classified as a high-income earner ($140,001 or more for singles and $280,001 and over for families, single parents and couples).

You can claim the rebate either as a premium reduction through your health fund or as a tax offset when you lodge your tax return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

How much is the lifetime healthcare loading (LHC) going to cost you?

If you’re getting health insurance for the first time as a senior, you’re going to be impacted by the Lifetime Health Cover (LHC), which is a loading of 2% on top of your premiums for every year over the age of 31 you didn’t have private health insurance. This can make buying health insurance as an adult prohibitively expensive for seniors.

How much more will health insurance cost if the LHC applies to you?

Let’s assume you’re 70 years old and have never held cover. The maximum loading of 70% will apply to your policy for the first ten years you hold it. If the normal annual premium for your seniors health insurance policy was $1,800, you’d need to pay an extra $1,260 per year, not counting any rebates you might be eligible for. While an additional $100 or so each month is nothing to sneeze at, getting insured can still be worth it if you make the most of your policy.

When don’t you have to pay the LHC?

There are a few exceptions where seniors won’t have to pay the LHC, the most relevant exemption is whether you were born on or before 1 July 1934. If you were, then you don’t need to worry about the LHC.

Continue reading:

• 

  Health insurance for over 50s

  Review your health insurance as you get close to retirement

• 

  Health insurance for over 70s

  Why get health insurance for people over 70?

• 

  Health insurance for over 80s

  Find out what you should be looking for in a health insurance policy

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