Every year, like all Australian health funds, we need to review our premiums to make sure we can cover the rising costs of quality healthcare for our members.
While our 2024 premium increase will come into effect on 1 April, we are proud to be a not-for-profit health fund, which means we always try to put our members needs first. This includes trying to keep any increases to our premiums as low as possible.
We understand cost of living pressures are biting hard for many Australians and we know this impacts many of our members. It’s important to us that our members see value in their private healthcare with HIF.
We know that having private health insurance helps our members to be seen sooner by medical professionals, with greater choice and better access to treatment options – ultimately helping our members to live healthier lives.
We continue to listen to what our members care about and adjust our products to best suit their needs. We know there’s nothing worse than stressing about how to get to a hospital in an emergency and wondering if you’re covered for the ambulance trip. That’s why, from 1 April, we have added Unlimited Emergency Ambulance on all domestic Hospital products1. We’ve also improved the Emergency Ambulance benefits on our Vital Options product 2.
Dental cover is an important part of any Extras health insurance policy. So, at the beginning of this year, we increased the benefits across 77 of our most claimed General and Major Dental services. This means less out-of-pocket costs for our members, no matter which dentist they see.
And because we care about our members’ mental health and understand that finding the right path to treatment can often seem overwhelming, we are continuing to offer, at no extra cost, our Mental Health Navigator for all HIF members who are 18 years or over - no matter their level of cover.
Our members are at the forefront of everything we do. We were the first health fund to recognise same-sex couples and non-binary titles, the first health fund to actively and publicly promote and fund research for medicinal cannabis and the first health fund to be declared carbon neutral. More recently, we opened the door to emerging therapies and continue to explore the potential they have in treating chronic mental health conditions.
We are committed to continuing to help our members live healthier lives with the freedom to choose along their health journey. This is our commitment for 2024 and beyond.
HIF members will be advised of changes to their individual premium rates and product improvements from Monday, 11 March. For more information visit hif.com.au/premiums.
1 Excluding transportation from a hospital to your home, nursing home or other hospital; transportation for ongoing medical treatment; off-road or air ambulance (e.g. plane, helicopter, or boat). Co-payment applies for an ambulance account with a service type of non-emergency or non-urgent call-out. A 1-day waiting period applies for emergency ambulance and 30-day waiting period applies for non-emergency ambulance. Waiting periods already served will be honoured.
2 From 1 April, benefit payable for 1 Emergency Ambulance service per person per year. Vital Options is a closed product and not available for new members. Refer to the Vital Options fact sheet for more information.