Compare singles health insurance

Since a singles health insurance is only for one person, you can be more selective when comparing and choosing your health insurance policy. This means you can look for and choose a cover that specifically includes what you want and don’t want to in your policy.

The cost of your singles health insurance will depend on your individual circumstances and policy needs. The cost of hospital cover generally increases as you age, but the cost of extras cover may not necessarily change with age.

Here are some factors that will affect the cost of the health insurance policy for singles:

• Your age
• Where you live
• The health insurance fund/provider
• The hospital cover tier level (from highest to lowest: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Basic)
• The extras covers (instead of tier level, this will depend on the policy and provider chosen)
• The health insurance excess amount

If you’re looking for the best health insurance for singles that suits you, it’s important to consider your own personal needs when comparing policies. As well as thinking about your life stage, you might also want to consider questions such as:

• What level of hospital cover do you want (Gold, Silver, Bronze or Basic)?
• Do you want extras cover? And what services do you want to cover for?
• Do you have any pre-existing conditions insurers need to be aware of?
• What’s your budget for premiums and any excess you choose?

Although costs are important, it’s equally essential to consider whether a policy has the right level of coverage for you. Cheaper policies might be tempting, but their level of cover can be less extensive and exclusions and restrictions can apply. When comparing health policies, it’s worth checking whether any restrictions apply to coverage and reading the terms and conditions carefully before committing to a policy.

Whether a couples health insurance will be better than taking out two separate singles policies will depend on your own individual circumstances. You may find that cost wise, the two options could be quite comparable. So you’ll likely find the decision to take out a policy for couples or singles to be ultimately circumstantial.

However, it’s worth factoring in the private health insurance rebate. The rebate is income tested and different thresholds apply depending on whether you are a single or a family (including couples).

Learn more: A guide to the private health insurance rebate

If you’re young and considering private health insurance, it could be worth considering some of the benefits of going private over public.

For example, with a private health insurance, you may be able to:

• Avoid potentially long public hospital waitlists
• Select a doctor, surgeon or specialist of your choice
• Claim rebates on some non-Medicare covered extras (such as dental, optical and physiotherapy)

There may be other financial incentives to getting private health insurance too. These potential benefits mainly include:

• Not paying Lifetime Health Cover loading: if you have not taken out a hospital policy by the time you turn 31, you are charged a premium loading if you decide to take out cover in the future.
• Not paying the Medicare Levy Surcharge: a tiered charge is applied to Australian taxpayers who earn above a certain income and don’t have private hospital cover.
• Policy discounts: some health insurers offer young Australians aged between 18 and 29 a private health insurance discount.
• Government rebates: you might be given a rebate for having private health insurance if you earn less than a certain threshold amount.

Another factor to consider is whether you could stay on your parents’ private health insurance policy. Although you are allowed to stay on your parents’ health policy up to the age of 31, the federal government didn’t make this mandatory for health funds. So it may be worth checking with the health fund and weighing up the costs before committing.

Learn more: How long can I stay on my parents’ private health policy?

It’s also important to weigh up the potential drawbacks of getting private health insurance, including:

• Overall cost: private health insurance can be expensive and premiums typically increase each year.
• Out-of-pocket costs: your policy may only cover part of the cost of a treatment or service. This means you may still need to pay out-of-pocket.
• Excluded treatments: policies may not cover every type of hospital treatment, procedure or service, and some may be offered on a restricted basis.

If you’re happy to be treated as a public patient in a public hospital and don’t think you would make regular claims on extras services, you may decide you do not need private health insurance right now.