Health cover that suits your needs

Also known as Hospital cover, Hospital insurance helps cover costs when you’re admitted to hospital. It covers things like your doctors’ fees, accommodation and theatre fees.

Hospital insurance is what you need to avoid the tax (Medicare Levy Surcharge) and the turning-31 thing (Lifetime Health Cover loading).

Learn more about hospital cover

Also known as Ancillary cover or Extras cover, Extras insurance helps cover the cost of everyday healthcare services—that’s for things like dental check-ups, physio appointments and glasses or contacts.

Extras insurance does not help you avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge tax; for that, you need Hospital insurance.

Learn more about extras cover

You can get health cover for yourself, you and your partner, or for your whole family. Generally, there are four categories of membership:

• 1 adult (Single)
• 2 adults (Couple)
• 2 adults and any number of dependants* (Family)
• 1 adult and any number of dependants* (Single Parent)

No, unfortunately there isn’t. Most health funds, including HBF, have a 12-month waiting period for pregnancy and birth cover. This helps stop people from signing up for health cover, claiming and leaving soon after, which drives up premiums for all other members of the health fund.

There are two types of health funds: not-for-profit and for-profit. A not-for-profit health fund, like HBF, uses the money it accumulates through premiums to pay for the cost of its members’ claims and to run the business. They don’t have shareholders to pay, so they can dedicate themselves to taking care of their members’ health.

Not-for-profit funds use any surplus earnings to give their members a better health care experience, which can come in the form of lower premiums or new benefits.

Unlike other forms of insurance, health insurance in Australia is community-rated, not risk-rated. Health funds can’t stop someone from joining or change the price of health insurance based on risk factors like age, gender, lifestyle or physical condition.

Community rating means regardless of how likely you are to claim, everyone is entitled to pay the same base price for the same health insurance policies. It also means health funds must provide health insurance to anybody who wants it.

As a member based, not for profit organisation, we are committed to providing quality, affordable cover to our members. From 2017 we discontinued our commercial affiliate arrangements with insurance comparison websites. This means that we do not pay commissions to insurance comparison websites to sell our health cover.

We prefer to do this through direct conversations, helping you choose the right cover for your life stage and individual needs. Not paying a third party also means that we can focus on giving as much back to our members as possible.

The World Health Organisation has announced that COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is a pandemic. The situation is rapidly evolving across the globe and within Australia. For the most up to date information we strongly advise you check the Department of Health website or the World Health Organisation website.

Learn more about COVID-19 and health insurance.