Aussies with health insurance are fighting back against the larger gap fees

Medicare takes care of a portion of your private in-hospital medical expenses, but it was never designed to pay for everything.

This is why Australians have private health insurance in the first place – to foot the bill for the rest.

Unfortunately, there’s still a big problem. Many of us with health cover – particularly our older Aussies who are most likely to need elective surgery – are getting hit with huge gap fees after hospital treatments.

It’s disappointing to hear each story about people being hit with high out-of-pocket expenses because there are plenty of known and no-gap policies available.

We know because we help people sign up to them every day, often to a cheaper policy as well.

It tends to be our older Australians who are more vulnerable to excessive gap fees. Photo: Getty

Gap fees go up, but there is a solution

The average gap fee for treatment in the 12 months from December 2021 was $333^ and, sadly, it tends to be our older Australians who are more vulnerable to these excessive costs.

They’re regularly stung with these costs at the worst possible time and even though doctors and health insurers are meant to inform patients about gap costs, it can often come as a nasty unexpected surprise.

After all, you don’t expect your health policy to end up costing you more money.

That’s why many Australians are taking matters into their own hands, by using Health Insurance Comparison to compare policies side by side** and switching to a “known or no-gap” option.

So when treatment is received from a participating doctor or specialist, your out-of-pocket gap costs are reduced or eliminated.

Take back control of your health cover

We make it straightforward to find out what your policy actually covers you for and how it stacks up against other options.

Our experts can help talk you through the specifics of the policy and we can even take care of all the paperwork.

Making the switch is simple and puts the power back in your hands.

Over the past five years, we’ve saved our customers an average of $320* off their annual health insurance cost when they switched policies through us.

It has never been easier to understand what you’re paying for and why you’re paying for it and our service is completely free to use.

Stop worrying about large gap fees and say hello to a better policy for your needs.

This article is opinion only and should not be taken as medical or financial advice. Check with a financial professional before making any decisions.^APRA Quarterly Private Health Statistics, December 17, 2021.

References:*Based on 111,658 policies sold Jan 2017-Nov 2021 **We compare products from a panel of trusted insurers. We do not compare all products in the market. Not all products available from our panel of insurers are compared and not all products are available to all customers.