Hospital cover is available in four different tiers: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Basic. Each tier covers a government-mandated list of treatments, making it easier to compare like-for-like.
We regularly crunch the numbers for our entire database of health funds in order to work out the average premium for each tier of hospital coverage. The most recent calculations are on the chart below. Each tier includes 'plus' policies as well.
These averages are based on the prices from all states for policies with a $750 excess for a single policy holder, before any surcharges or the private health insurance rebate are applied. The price of your policy may be more or less than this, depending on your circumstances.
There are several factors that will change the price of your health insurance premiums, whether you get hospital or extras cover. Here are the main ones to consider.
The cost of health insurance varies by state. This is because the cost of private healthcare is more expensive in some locations, which increases the cost of insurance. For example, health insurance is significantly cheaper in the Northern Territory than it is in any other state.
The current average cost of extras is $12.07 per month for a single 30-year old earning less than $93,000 per year. However, because extras policies are so varied, it's hard to generalise. You should compare health insurance with Finder's tools to work out how much your perfect extras policy is likely to cost.
We regularly run the numbers on our entire health insurance database to find the average cost of extras cover for each state. Our most recent calculations are shown in the chart below.
'Cheapest' is a relative term for hospital cover. Whether you need health cover for tax or health cover for pregnancy makes a big difference. Luckily, the Australian government has a tier ranking for hospital cover, from Gold down to Basic. We've listed each tier below.
| Tier | Policy name | Monthly Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | St Luke's: Gold Hospital | $176.90 |
| Silver | Westfund: Silver Hospital | $110.88 |
| Bronze | Phoenix: Bronze Hospital | $86.34 |
| Basic | Frank: Accident Only Hospital | $77.50 |
Prices based on single 30-year old living in NSW earning less than $93,000 per year with a $750 excess. Analysis performed December 2023.
Remember, the cheapest policy is not always the best policy. Here's a good tip - when you're comparing hospital insurance policies, look out for 'Plus' policies. These products cover more treatments than the minimums required from each tier, often for just a few more dollars a month. They're often great value.
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