What are Private Health Insurance waiting periods?

When you take out Private Health Insurance, you cannot make a claim immediately. 

Private health insurers impose waiting periods before you can make a claim under your new Hospital Cover or Extras Cover policy or when upgrading your policy.

Waiting periods for Hospital Cover

The Australian government sets the maximum waiting periods that can be set for hospital treatment:

A mental health waiting period exemption occurs when upgrading from a restricted benefits policy to an unrestricted benefits policy if you have held a minimum of Basic Hospital Cover for at least 2 months. You can use this exemption at any time but only once in your lifetime.

Waiting periods for Extras Cover

The insurers set waiting periods for Extras Cover themselves.

For General Dental, Optical and Physiotherapy, the waiting periods vary from 2-6 months.

For more significant treatments, such as Orthodontics and Hearing aids, the waiting periods can be up to 12 months or more.

Always check your policy for the waiting periods that apply to you.

Why do I have to serve a waiting period for my health insurance?

When you take out Private Health Insurance, you have to complete a waiting period.

A waiting period protects insurers and their members from people who take out cover, make a large claim straightaway, then end their membership. If members did this on a regular basis, insurers would have to increase premiums for everyone.