Step-by-step calculations for real decisions: cover or surcharge, when to join, which excess, gap fees and switching.
Rules are easier to apply when you can see the numbers. These guides take common decisions and work them through with the arithmetic shown: whether a cheap hospital policy costs less than the Medicare Levy Surcharge at your income, how much a Lifetime Health Cover loading adds if you join at 35, 40 or 50, whether extras cover returns more in benefits than it costs, which hospital excess makes sense, and what you might pay out of pocket for a planned operation.
The step-by-step policy comparison guide is the place to start. It links to each worked example and to the calculators for the rebate, the surcharge and comparing hospital policies, plus a switching checklist.
Every premium, fee and benefit in these examples is an illustrative figure chosen to make the arithmetic clear. Your own numbers come from each policy's Private Health Information Statement, your insurer and your doctors. Income thresholds and rebate percentages are the published 2025–26 and 2026–27 figures.
Worked Examples and Checklists
How hospital excesses work in Australia, per-admission versus annual excesses, the limits for the surcharge, and a break-even calculation for choosing a level.
Worked Examples and Checklists
A practical method for comparing hospital and extras policies like for like, using policy statements, the rebate, excess, gap cover and a worked comparison.
Worked Examples and Checklists
Side-by-side arithmetic for singles and families at each surcharge tier, including the rebate, LHC loading and excess risk, to see when cheap hospital cover wins.
Worked Examples and Checklists
Test extras cover by comparing the premium after rebate with the benefits you would actually claim, with worked examples for a light user, a regular user and a family.
Worked Examples and Checklists
Ten-year cost of the LHC loading at different joining ages, compared with holding cheap hospital cover from your base day, with every step of the arithmetic shown.
Worked Examples and Checklists
How Medicare's 75%, your insurer's 25%, gap cover schemes, the excess and hospital charges combine into your out-of-pocket cost for an operation, with the arithmetic shown.
Worked Examples and Checklists
How portability protects waiting periods when you change policy or fund, the transfer certificate, timing the switch, extras limits and a worked downgrade example.
