Are health insurance sign up offers worth it?
Health insurance in Australia is a competitive market, and virtually all providers have a sign up offer to entice new customers. The positive of this is that if you’re comparing health insurance deals, you’ll have a broad range of providers and offers to choose from. The downside is it’s just yet another factor to consider for what is already a complicated product.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding if a health insurance offer will be worth your while:
1. Am I eligible?
All health insurance offers will have terms and conditions. Make sure you actually qualify for the offer before you apply. Some of the more common T&Cs you’ll encounter are:
- New members only, which often also excludes people who have been a member within the recent past. Remember too that many health insurance providers are part of a larger health insurance group, and you are generally excluded from offers if you are switching between brands in the same group.
- Minimum cover level requirements, meaning you might need to be joining on a high level of hospital cover or a combined hospital and extras policy.
- Must apply direct, meaning if you apply via a comparison website or what's known as an 'aggregator' you might not be eligible. This restriction will not apply if you click through to an offer from Money.com.au as we are not paid by providers to feature their deals.
- You’ll also need to be eligible to join the fund more generally. Some funds are industry specific, meaning you need to work (or have worked in the past) in that industry or be related to someone who does to be able to join.
2. Is this health insurance policy actually suitable for me?
This is important. Make sure the policy you’ll be signing up for is a good fit for your health needs and those of anyone else covered under the policy. That means checking carefully what is and isn’t covered, what limits apply, as well as other factors such as waiting periods.
3. Will I be saving money overall?
Chris Whitelaw, General Manager - Health Insurance at Money.com.au
"A health insurance offer is only going to make sense if you are ahead overall. That means taking into account the full cost of the health cover over the long term after the offer value is deducted. An initial discount probably isn’t going to be worth it if your new policy is significantly more expensive than what’s available elsewhere."
Chris Whitelaw, General Manager - Health Insurance at Money.com.au
4. Do I need the level of cover required to qualify for the offer?
As a general rule, health insurance sign up offers are available on providers' more expensive policies. Do you actually need that level of cover or will you be signing up for a more expensive policy in order to qualify for the deal.
5. Will you be staying with the provider for long enough to benefit?
A common condition with health insurance sign up offers is that you’ll need to maintain the policy and be fully paid up for a minimum period before you get the offer benefit. For example, you might need to have paid premiums for three months in order to get the six weeks free available under an offer.
This is a fairly reasonable condition, as it means people won’t be tempted to sign up for an offer and then immediately switch having enjoyed the free cover but not paid a cent to the provider. Make sure you are prepared to commit to the policy for long enough to benefit – if you sign up and then switch or cancel after a short period, chances are you will have nothing to show for it as far as any special offer benefits go.
6. Are there any other limitations or catches?
Think about any other details of the offer that may impact how much you benefit from it. For example, if the offer means you get bonus points for an obscure rewards program that you are unlikely to use on an ongoing basis, that would be something to consider. In some cases, you may need to separately join the rewards program (and potentially pay a fee) to access and use the points.
Another common piece of fine print is that the offer cannot be used in conjunction with another offer. That means if the provider has two separate offers available, you’ll need to pick one or the other.
Health insurance deals explained
Free weeks of cover
How it works This is the most common type of health insurance sign-up offer. It mitigates what is commonly seen as one of the the main disadvantages of private health insurance: cost.
New members with a set number of weeks of free cover – usually six or eight, but it can be as high as 10. The free weeks are typically applied by extending the “paid to” date on your policy, meaning your next payment is deferred by the duration of the free weeks.
What to watch out for You generally only become eligible for the free weeks after you have paid for a certain period (e.g., one or two months). Sometimes these offers are staggered, meaning you might get one batch of free weeks early in your policy, and the rest once you have been with the provider for a longer period (e.g. after a year). In short, you may be paying full price on your policy for some time before you get the full offer benefit.
Account credits
How it works A policy account credit (e.g., up to $400) is an offer where the insurance provider applies an amount of money to your account, offsetting the cost to you. It is effectively the same as getting a period of cover for free, as you wouldn’t be charged for premiums until the credit amount has been used up.
What to watch out for Don’t confuse these offers with a cashback deal. You won’t have any control over what the money is used for as it is simply credited to your health insurance account. This type of health insurance offer also typically only kicks in after you have been with the provider for a set amount of time.
Cashback offers
How it works This kind of health insurance offer is relatively rare, but where it is available the policyholder gets a cash rebate or refund equivalent to several weeks’ premiums, usually after maintaining the policy for a specific duration (e.g., 3 months). The cashback is usually paid directly into the member’s nominated bank account, or issued as a cash equivalent like a pre-paid Eftpos card.
What to watch out for You will almost certainly need to wait several months (while paying premiums on your new policy) before you get the cashback.
If this kind of offer is your thing, there are also cashback home loans and credit cards with cashback.
Gift cards or rewards points
How it works This is when new members receive gift cards (e.g., Visa prepaid cards) or loyalty rewards points (e.g., Qantas Points) as part of the sign-up offer. These rewards are typically provided after maintaining the policy for a set period (e.g., 2–3 months) and are redeemable for a variety of goods and services. The general rule of thumb is that the offer amount will be twice as high on couples health insurance and family health cover (including single parent health insurance) as it is on singles health insurance, but this usually proportionate to the difference in premiums for each.
What to watch out for These offers are generally only useful if you already use the rewards program the points apply to, or are likely to use it on an ongoing basis and get value from it. It’s important to also take a look at what the points would be worth when converted to something you would use. Checking what you’d get if you converted them to a gift card is a handy way of getting a sense of the cash value of the offer. If the offer is for a gift card, check where it can be used and when it expires.
Waived waiting periods on Extras
How it works This is when the provider effectively offers a level of health insurance with no waiting period by waiving the usual waiting periods for certain Extras cover services (e.g., dental, physiotherapy). This means new members can claim on these services straight away without having to wait the standard two or six months.
What to watch out for The waiting period is typically only waived on selected Extras. Waiting periods (e.g., for major dental or pre-existing conditions) may still apply on certain Extras and all Hospital cover.
Referral bonuses
How it works If there’s a referral bonus offer, new members (or existing members) who refer a friend to the health insurer receive a benefit, such as a gift card or a discount on premiums. The referred friend may also receive a reward after signing up and maintaining the policy for a certain amount of time
What to watch out for The friend you referred for the bonus usually needs to stay with the provider for a certain amount of time before you get the benefit.
This kind of bonus can be a win-win for you and your friend if they qualify, but these arrangements don’t always go perfectly smoothly. Make sure you and you friend are comfortable with the offer T&Cs and what you’re signing up for. If in doubt, you may ultimately decide that maintaining a complication-free friendship is more valuable than getting a few hundred dollars on a gift card from a health insurance company.
No-gap offers
How it works These offers mean you are covered for 100% of the cost of certain eligible services and procedures (often dental), meaning you won’t have a gap payment for those services.
Where there are gap payments, these can be significant and rising year-to-year, the latest private health insurance data shows.
What to watch out for There are usually significant limits on these offers, meaning they may only apply for very specific named services and with certain providers.
Multi-policy insurance discounts
How it works Some insurance providers provide a discount when members bundle their health insurance with other products, such as life insurance, travel insurance, car insurance or home insurance. For example, you might get 10% off one or more of your policies from the same provider.
What to watch out for Check whether the cover, including the discount, is going to work out as good value versus getting the policies from separate providers. The same goes for the level of cover you get. You may ultimately get more suitable cover for your needs by getting your various policies from different companies.
Ongoing perks
How it works Most health insurance companies have some sort of rewards program that gives members access to the likes of discounted gift cards, rewards points per dollar spent on premiums and special discounts at partner brands. There’s usually a health dimension to these offers perks – think discounted gym membership, extra reward points if you reach a certain step count or offers for wellness services like massages and spa visits.
What to watch out for These are nice-to-have perks on top of the actual health insurance coverage you get, but remember these benefits may well simply be priced into your premiums. Consider if you’d be better off with a cheaper policy that doesn’t have the bells and whistles, especially if you're a senior Australian receiving the pension. With any money you save, you could always put that towards a trip to the spa.
