NEW Smart Start Extras

Also known as health cover, health insurance is an umbrella term for the types of insurances available to help cover your healthcare costs in Australia: hospital insurance and extras insurance.

Hospital insurance

Also known as hospital cover, hospital insurance helps cover some of the costs when you're admitted to hospital. It can help cover some of the costs for things like doctors' fees, accommodation and theatre fees.

Extras insurance

Also known as ancillary cover or extras cover, extras insurance helps cover some or all of the costs for everyday healthcare services including things like dental check-ups, physio appointments and glasses or contacts. These services are generally not covered by Medicare.

With HBF, you can choose to purchase hospital or extras insurance on their own, or you can buy both to create a combined policy.

Learn more:

• What is extras insurance?
• What is hospital insurance?

An annual limit is the maximum amount of money you can claim for a service within a calendar year. Each person on your policy has their own annual limits.

The amount you can claim back on extras services depends on your benefits (the amount you get back when you claim) and your annual limits (the maximum amount you can claim in a year).

Nearly all extras insurance policies only cover services to a limited extent, which means you'll usually pay for some of the service out of your own pocket.

What makes extras insurance worthwhile is that Medicare generally doesn't cover extras services, so without extras insurance you'd have to cover the full cost of treatment every time you receive a service.

The specific extras services you're covered for depends on your health fund, level of cover and the specific policy you choose. Here are some examples of common services extras insurance can cover:

• Dental treatment — this includes preventative dental, general restorative dental, major dental and implants, and orthodontics
• Physiotherapy
• Optical - glasses and contact lenses
• Chiropractic treatment
• Podiatry

Learn more about extras cover

Also known as ancillary cover or extras cover, extras insurance helps cover the cost of everyday healthcare services including things like dental check-ups, physio appointments and glasses or contacts. These services are generally not covered by Medicare.

There are some situations where your health fund cannot pay a benefit (because they legally can't), but Medicare will. For example, a visit to a doctor outside of hospital, like a General Practitioner, is not covered by health insurance, no matter what health fund you're with — this is covered by Medicare.

Consultation fees for a doctor or a specialist appointment outside of hospital, tests and examinations like x-rays or blood tests and eye tests performed by an optometrist are common situations where your health fund won't pay a benefit but Medicare will.