What’s the best Basic health insurance?

By Trudie McConnochie Reviewed and updated 20 May 2026

If you want Hospital Cover that provides the bare essentials, Basic Hospital Cover could be your best bet. You’ll need to do your homework, though, as some Basic health insurance policies don’t provide much in the way of value – and they aren’t necessarily cheap, either. Using the healthslips.com.au Calculator, we found a $3,320.52 difference per year between the cheapest and most expensive Combined Hospital and Extras Basic policies.

As the experts on health insurance, we at healthslips.com.au are well-equipped to help you find the best Basic health insurance for you at the best price. Here’s what you need to know.

Screen showing the cheapest and most expensive Basic policies, from the healthslips.com.au calculator, as at May 2026. Image credit: Shutterstock

What’s the cheapest Basic health insurance?

We used the healthslips.com.au calculator to calculate Combined Hospital and Extras Basic Cover for 2 adults in NSW. Here’s what we found:

Cheapest per month	Most expensive per month	Difference per month	Difference per year
$225.95	$502.66	$276.71	$3,320.52

While the prices varied significantly, the difference in cover level for hospital treatments was marginal. Both policies covered only 3 of 38 clinical categories (hospital services) at restricted levels. The Extras Cover was markedly different, however, with the cheaper policy covering only 13 of 27 treatments while the more expensive policy covered 24 treatments.

If you want more coverage than Basic policies provide, but your budget doesn’t stretch to Bronze cover, you could consider a Basic Plus policy.

What’s the best Basic Plus policy?

How do I find the best Bronze policy?

Smiling,Indian,Businessman,Working,On,Laptop,In,Modern,Office,Lobby — Image credit: Shutterstock

How do you find the best Basic Hospital Cover?

To find the best and cheapest Basic health insurance for you, click on the healthslips.com.au calculator, which will search every policy on the market to give you completely unbiased results. Best of all, it’s free to use and you don’t have to enter your contact details to get the results – and there’s no pressure to buy any policies since we don’t sell insurance.

If you’re thinking of going to a higher level of cover than Basic, the healthslips.com.au calculator allows you to compare up to 10 policies across different tiers of Hospital Cover (Basic, Bronze , Silver, Gold), so you can find out which policy gives you the best cover for the best price and your stage of life. We can’t tell you which policy to choose, but with the unbiased results from our calculator, you’ve got all the tools you need to make a good decision.

Try the healthslips.com.au calculator today.

healthslips.com.au does not provide general or personalised advice. Your particular circumstances are likely to impact the accuracy, completeness and relevance of the information or results. Take this into account before making a decision and talk to an expert for financial advice.    

Trudie McConnochie

Writer and Researcher

Knowledge is power – that’s the guiding principle behind everything Trudie writes, and it’s a philosophy she brings to her work at healthslips.com.au. By breaking down complex information into easy-to-understand blogs and stories, she aims to empower Australians to make the best choices and an informed decision around private health insurance.

Trudie understands firsthand some of the complexity of private health insurance having moved to Australia from New Zealand and having to navigate a vastly different public healthcare system and health insurance structure.

Trudie holds a Bachelor of Communication Studies (journalism major) from the Auckland University of Technology.