When was the last time you checked your health cover? If it’s been a while since you last checked your policy, you could be paying more than you need to. Despite the rising cost of living, there are still big savings to be made if you know where to look.
Compare Club’s experts can help you compare health policies from a panel of leading insurers# and take care of the switching process – possibly saving you hundreds in just a few minutes.
Over the last five years, Compare Club has saved customers an average of $320* on their annual health insurance costs when they switched policies through them. Their experts will help you squeeze out every last cent of savings and value from your policy.
Rising cost of premiums
Most health funds in Australia raise their premiums every year. While this helps the funds offset any rising healthcare costs, it can also add hundreds onto the cost of health insurance for many policyholders.
The average premium increase this year will be 2.70%. Based on federal government estimates, this means that the average policyholder could see an increase of $125.84 if you’re on a family or couples policy, or $58.24 for singles policy holders.
So if you normally pay $100 a month for private health insurance, a 2.70% rate rise would see your monthly premium increase to $102.70.
That might not sound like much, but when you add up the costs over the course of a year, it can make a huge difference to how much of your income you’re spending on health insurance.
Why do health insurance premiums increase each year?
The most common reasons why private health insurance funds increase their premiums annually include:
- More people accessing health services each year.
- An ageing population and higher rates of conditions like cancer or heart attacks places a bigger strain on health services.
- Improved treatments are often more expensive for our healthcare system.
These factors help explain why health funds increase their premiums – and the cost of providing insurance to you gets more expensive each year. They don’t always pass on the additional costs to you, their customers, but this is generally why you can expect your premiums to go up.
Can you avoid the impact of health insurance premium increases in 2022?
The short answer is yes, if you switch to a different, lower cost fund. The experts at Compare Club can help with this. They can compare policies and provide you with options that fit within your budget, saving you time jumping from insurer to insurer and comparing policies yourself.
Will you have to serve new waiting periods if you switch policies?
Not necessarily. You can switch to an equivalent or lower level of cover without serving new waiting periods on your health insurance. You’ll only need to serve new waiting periods if you have upgraded to a higher level of cover. Also, remember that any unserved waiting periods will transfer to your new health fund. So if you end up switching health insurance to an equivalent cover, you may need to finish these unserved waiting periods before you can make a claim.
How do you know if I’m getting value for money from my health fund?
If you haven’t changed funds or policies in a few years, there’s a good chance you could be getting better value for money elsewhere. And if you’ve moved to a different state or out to regional Australia, your current health fund may not have agreements with your local hospital or dentist. One of the fastest and easiest ways to see how your current premiums stack up – and how much you could save by switching – is to compare health insurance quotes.
Why trust Compare Club?
Here’s why you should compare health insurance with Compare Club:
- They’re independently owned: Unlike some of their competitors, Compare Club isn’t owned by any insurers (or vice versa).
- They make switching easy: Compare Club has been helping Aussies save on their health insurance for over 10 years.
- They are 100% Australian owned: Compare Club’s entire health insurance team is based in Australia and comprehensively trained.
* Based on 111,658 policies sold Jan 2017–Nov 2021
# Compare Club compares selected products from a panel of trusted insurers. They do not compare all products in the market.
This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with Compare Club.
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