2023 Health Insurance Awards
Australia’s largest comparison site, Canstar, releases its
2023 Health Insurance Star Ratings and Awards.
Released: 27 September, 2023
About Canstar’s Health Insurance Awards
Canstar’s Health Insurance Awards are based on our Star Ratings and recognise the insurers found to offer outstanding value to consumers, either nationally or in a particular state.
Learn more about our Star Ratings and Award process in the methodology.
Numbers crunched by Canstar Researchers
- 30 providers assessed
- 420 consumer profiles considered
- 7,487 hospital policy variations
- 4,193 extras policy variations
- 32,194 package policy variations
- 3 state & territory award-winning providers
- 8 state & territory award-winning providers
Read our methodology →
View the full Star Ratings results →
See all Canstar Star Ratings and Award results →
About this year’s awards
To determine the winners, hospital only, extras only, and hospital & extras package insurance policies are assessed using our sophisticated ratings methodology unique to Canstar. Our Star Ratings are designed to help Australians narrow their search and find the right policy for them by providing a shortlist of products that have been assessed and ranked.
Canstar recognises that consumers have different needs when it comes to choosing their health insurance policy, which is why our Star Ratings methodology has been designed to reflect a range of health insurance needs based on a consumer’s life stage, family structure and level of coverage.
Each consumer profile is first broken down by their life stage, then family structure. The different life stages are as follows:
- Young consumer profile: less than 36 years of age
- Established consumer profile: 36 to 59 years of age
- Obstetrics consumer profile: any age
- Matures consumer profile: 60 years of age and above
The national, state and territory Outstanding Value Awards are based on a combination of these Star Ratings, and recognise the insurance providers with the best cumulative performance across all consumer profiles and locations considered.
About the Award winners
(Winners are listed alphabetically)
ahm
Hospital Insurance Award – WA
Canstar Researchers found ahm’s performance for hospital cover in WA to represent outstanding value. This is attributed to its Classic Saver Sliver Plus and the introduction of its Super Deluxe Saver Silver Plus policy, both offering comprehensive cover and added benefits such as separate optical limits and no excess for dependents. Ahm’s new Simple Bronze Plus policy also leads its suite in the Young profiles, offering all Bronze inclusions, plus some additional items for a competitive premium. The combination of these factors secured ahm the WA Hospital Insurance Award.
Established more than 40 years ago, ahm is a specialist provider of health insurance and is part of the Medibank Group.
Bupa
Health Insurance Award – Australia
Extras Insurance Award – SA
Bupa has retained a National Award this year, showing consistently strong performance across Hospital, Extras and Package policies. In the hospital profiles, Bupa’s Silver Plus and Bronze Plus policies stood out in particular.
Canstar Researchers also found an increase in Bupa’s performance in the Extras policies. Overall, Bupa offers a range of extras policies that perform strongly across the three levels of cover assessed, which also resulted in Bupa’s State Award for Extras Insurance in SA.
Bupa Australia is part of the Bupa Group, which is an international healthcare company.
HBF
Extras Insurance Award – WA
Extras Insurance Award – NT
HBF performed strongly in the Extras category this year, earning them a State and territory Award in WA and NT. HBF’s Flex 50 and 60 policies in particular were standouts, performing strongly across the majority of the profiles as they offer a percentage back on extras items up to a combined limit, meaning consumers have flexibility over what they want to claim on.
HBF (Hospital Benefit Fund) has been in operation for nearly 80 years and follows a not-for-profit structure.
HCF
Health Insurance Award – Australia
Extras Insurance Award – NSW
Extras Insurance Award – VIC
Extras Insurance Award – QLD
Extras Insurance Award – TAS
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – VIC
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – QLD
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – WA
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – SA
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – TAS
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – NT
HCF continues to provide outstanding value in Hospital, Extras and Package cover, earning them yet another National Award and multiple Extras and Package State Awards.
Its Bronze Plus and Silver Plus policies shine in Young and Established Hospital profiles respectively, offering policyholders broad coverage for a competitive monthly premium. HCF’s performance for the Extras Insurance Awards is largely driven by its Mid Extras policy, which is competitively priced for a mid-level policy while still offering competitive cover and relatively high policy limits for your everyday extras items. Notably, HCF’s Vital Extras product offers no annual limit on general and preventative dental and provides high annual limits for other more expensive items.
It’s the combination of these outstanding value package policies that has earned HCF Canstar’s Hospital & Extras Insurance Awards in every state and territory but NSW, where they remained ultra competitive with 5-star rated policies in all underlying package profiles.
First established in 1932, HCF (Hospitals Contribution Fund) is a not-for-profit health fund and claims to serve 1.8 million members.
Health Partners
Hospital Insurance Award – SA
Health Partners’s Bronze Plus and Silver Plus Lite policies were awarded a 5-Star Rating in the Young and Established profiles, both offering competitive premiums with no co-payments. Its 4-Star policy in Obstetrics with Gold Complete Hospital was also notable, having no co-payments or excess payments to hospital admissions for dependents.
Established for 80 years, Health Partners is a South Australia based not-for-profit open health fund.
GMHBA
Hospital Insurance Award – VIC
Hospital Insurance Award – QLD
Hospital Insurance Award – NT
GMHBA continues to provide outstanding value in its hospital policies and strong premiums. GMHBA’s Silver Plus, Bronze Plus and Bronze Essential policies were particular standouts, having no excess payments applied to hospital admissions for day surgeries and no co-payments.
Founded in 1934, GMHBA is a not-for-profit health insurance and care company with a focus on regionally based private health insurers.
Medibank
Health Insurance Award – Australia
Medibank is once again a recipient of the National Health Insurance Award, demonstrating a significant leap with its Extras policies this year. Medibank’s Essential Extras 75 policy in particular showed consistently strong performance due to its low monthly cost and high level of cover for everyday extras such as dental, physio and chiro.
For Hospital, Medibank’s new Silver Plus Policy was found to perform highly across the Established profiles, while Medicare’s Bronze Everyday and Bronze Plus suite of policies shined in the Young profiles for their low cost.
Established in 1976, Medibank claims to provide private health insurance and health services to more than 3.9 million people in Australia.
Phoenix Health Fund
Hospital Insurance Award – NSW
Hospital & Extras Insurance Award – NSW
Phoenix Health Fund’s suite of hospital policies performed strong across the range of consumer profiles in NSW, particularly its Silver Plus Content in the Obstetrics profiles with ultra competitive premiums, comprehensive coverage and no co-payments. While Phoenix Health’s Bronze policy leads its suite within the Young profile, earning 5-Stars across each of the underlying family structures assessed. Its Bronze Plus Care policy also received a mix of 4-Star and 5-Star Ratings within the Established consumer profile.
Phoenix Health was initially founded in 1953 for Stewards and Lloyds employees but now operates as an open not-for-profit health fund for anyone to join.
St.LukesHealth
Hospital Insurance Award – TAS
St.LukesHealth displayed a competitive blend with its Bronze Plus, Silver Plus, and Gold Hospital policies, which earned them a mix of 4-Stars and 5-Stars across the majority of the underlying profiles in Tasmania.
St.LukesHealth is a locally owned not-for-profit health fund based in Tasmania that has been operating for over 70 years.
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About: Josh Sale, Group Manager, Research & Ratings
Bachelor of Commerce, Economics/Finance dual major, Griffith University. Master of Data Science, Strategy and Leadership, RMIT (ongoing studies)
Joshua Sale is responsible for developing the methodology and delivering Canstar’s flagship Star Ratings, as part of Canstar’s Research team. With tertiary qualifications in economics and finance, he enjoys helping Australians find more suitable financial products by transforming complex calculations into a consumer-friendly Star Rating that explains the values and benefits of different financial products.
As one of Canstar’s company spokespeople, Joshua has participated in print, radio and broadcast interviews with the likes of the Australian Financial Review, news.com.au and Money magazine, along with other leading media outlets, discussing topics such as home loan equity, banking incentive schemes, digital wallets and wider finance trends.
Joshua is known for his ability to simplify complex products and technical information, crunching the data into meaningful insights for consumers about finance. He has analysed several consumer markets across banking, insurance and wealth, and is keenly interested in various topics, ranging from how Australians interact with their superannuation funds, to the dynamic nature of the health insurance market, and collecting and redeeming credit card reward points.
Joshua believes that knowledge is the first step towards empowerment. Even while studying, he facilitated peer-assisted study sessions for economics, and represented his University’s Business School in an academic committee.
You can follow Josh on LinkedIn, and Canstar on Twitter and Facebook.