Single Parent Health Insurance

Reviewed and updated 3 April 2024

What is Single Parent Health Insurance?

Single Parent Health Insurance is private health insurance designed specifically for single parent families.

It covers you and your children.

It many ways it operates like Family Health Insurance.

However, there are differences:

Two-parent families pay the same premiums as couples, which means their children are insured for free.
Single parents are charged extra for their children’s health insurance.

How much does Single Parent Health Insurance cost?

Prices

For single parents:

Hospital Cover starts at around $150 per month
Extras Cover starts at around $30 per month
Combined Hospital and Extras Cover starts at around $225 per month.

How private health insurers calculate the price of Single Parent Health Insurance

As a single parent, the cost of your health insurance will be higher than for a single person without children.

Some health insurers charge single parents the same premium as two-parent families.

Generally, Single Parent Health Insurance costs 10-30% less than Family Health Insurance.

Key factors affecting the cost of Single Parent Health Insurance

The cost of Single Parent Health Insurance depends on the tier of Hospital Cover and/or extent of Extras Cover, your age, income, where you live, excess payable and any co-payments:

Tier of Hospital Cover:
- Basic Cover
- Bronze Cover
- Silver Cover
- Gold Cover.
Extent of Extras Cover
Your age:
- If you are 18-29, you may be eligible for the Age-based Discount, which means you can save up to 10% per year on Hospital Cover.
- if you have not taken out Hospital Cover before the age of 31, you may have to pay the Lifetime Health Cover Loading, which is 2% per year for every year you have not taken out cover.
Your income: If your income is $288,000 or less, you may be eligible for the Private Health Insurance Rebate, which gives you a discount on:
- Hospital Cover
- Extras Cover
- Ambulance Cover.

If your income is over $188,000 plus $1,500 for each dependent child per year and you do not have Hospital Cover, you may have to pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Where you live: You pay more if:
- you live in an area where there is a higher rate of claims
- your state or territory charges more for hospital services.
Higher excess: applies if you want to pay this in exchange for a lower premium.
Co-payment: applies if you want to make a contribution for every day you are in hospital in exchange for a lower premium.

What is the best Single Parent Health Insurance?

To find the best Single Parent Health Insurance for your family, ask yourself these 10 questions:

Q1: What are you and your children’s circumstances?

What are your health needs?
What are your lifestyle habits?
Does anyone have a pre-existing condition?
Do you want health insurance to reduce your tax bill only?
What is your family history of health conditions?

Q2: How old are you and your children?

Do you have young children, school age children or teenage children?
- Consider whether, if your children develop health issues, you want the choice of having them treated in the private hospital system.
- Consider whether you want help paying for expenses that Medicare does not cover like Dental, Optical, Speech Therapy and Orthodontics.
Do you have adult children who are dependent on you?
- The Australian Government:
  - allows dependent children, such as students, to remain on a family policy until the age of 31
  - has removed the age limit for dependants living with disability.
- Check whether the insurer has extended their family cover to dependants because it is optional for them to do this.
- Check whether your insurer charges you a loading for covering adult dependants.

Q3: What type of health insurance do you and your children need?

Hospital Cover
Extras Cover
Combined Hospital and Extras Cover
Ambulance Cover Only.

Q4: If you want Hospital Cover, what level of Hospital Cover do you and your children need?

Hospital Cover tiers:

Basic
Bronze
Silver
Gold.

Q5: If you want Extras Cover, what treatments do you and your children need and are likely to use?

There is no point taking out Extras Cover if you are not going to use it.

Q6: For Extras Cover, what are the limits on the policy?

Check the policy for:

claim limits: how many claims you can make for a particular treatment?
annual limits: how much you can claim each year?
lifetime limits: how many claims you can make for a particular treatment over the life of the policy?

Q7: What is your budget?

Does the cover you have selected fit within your budget?
Are you eligible for the Private Health Insurance Rebate?
Are you eligible for the Age-based Discount?
Will you have to pay the Lifetime Health Cover Loading?

Q8: Will you have to pay an excess if you make a claim on Hospital Cover?

How much is the excess?
Will you be able to afford the excess if you make a claim?

Q9: Will you have to make a co-payment if you make a claim on your Hospital Cover policy?

How much is the co-payment?
Will you be able to afford the co-payment if you make a claim?

Q10: Does the policy have waiting periods?

Check the policy to find out:

What is the waiting period before you can make a claim for a particular Hospital Cover clinical category?
What is the waiting period before you can make a claim for a particular Extras Cover treatment?

For example:

If you are thinking of having children, you need Gold Cover, which has a waiting period of 12 months before you can make a claim.
If you want your baby to be covered under your policy when they are born, most health insurers require you take out a family policy 12 months before the baby is born but some health funds require up to 12 months.

Does Single Parent Health Insurance cover pregnancy and birth?

Yes. Single Parent Health Insurance covers pregnancy and birth if you take out Gold Hospital Cover.

However, it does not cover pregnancy and birth if you take out Basic, Bronze or Silver Cover.

Do I need to swap to Single Parent Health Insurance if I am separating or getting a divorce?

Yes. If you are separating or divorcing from your partner and have Family Health Insurance, you must switch to Single Parent Health Insurance.

If you do not switch, your insurer could refuse to pay your claim.

You must switch policies within the number of days set by your health insurer. When you switch to the same tier of Hospital Cover, you do not need to re-serve your waiting periods provided you have already completed those waiting periods.

Can my children get their own health insurance?

Yes. It is possible for a child to take health insurance but it is not very common.

Generally, you cannot take out private health insurance until you turn 16. Some insurers, however, will cover younger children.

Since most Family Health Insurance policies cover dependants, it may make more financial sense to take out a family policy because your children will be covered at no extra cost.

If you don’t have a partner, you may want to take out Single Parent Health Insurance to cover your children.

How can I compare Single Parent Health Insurance?

As a single parent, it is very important to compare prices for health insurance because some funds charge as much for cover as two-parent families.

Use our Calculator to find the best and cheapest Single Parent Health Insurance for you.

We compare every insurer and policy.

We can also give you a personalised price on your Single Parent Health Insurance because you can calculate whether you:

can save on your health insurance because you are eligible for the Private Health Insurance Rebate and/or the Age-based Discount
have to pay the Lifetime Health Cover Loading.