Family health insurance

How does family health insurance work?

A family health insurance policy means your children are covered for the same treatments and services as you are. In health insurance, family is what's known as a 'life stage'. There are 4 life stages, which are:

• Single: Cover for a single person, just one.
• Couple: Cover for two people, a couple if you will. Basically just 2 single policies bolted together.
• Family: Cover for a couple, plus any number of dependent children.
• Single-parent: Same as a family policy, but for just a single adult.

How much does family health insurance cost?

Both family and single-parent policies will cover any number of dependent children in your family, for the same price. Whether you have 1, 2 or 10 kids, your policy will be the same price.

A family policy will be a little more expensive than the corresponding couples policy, while a single-parent policy will be a decent amount more expensive than the corresponding singles policy. In both cases, it's less than adding the cost of an extra adult to the policy, but the impact is typically a lot more significant for single-parent policies.

Price of family health insurance example:

Let's take a popular bronze tier combined policy, HCF Bronze Plus + Mid Extras. Both of these products did really well in the 2025 Finder health insurance awards, so they offer pretty good value. With a $750 excess in NSW, for 30-year-old adults earning $80,000 each, here are the prices for each life stage, as of May 2025:

• Single: $132.26 per month
• Single-parent: $211.61 per month
• Couple: $264.52 per month
• Family: $265.24 per month

The exact differences vary between funds, but you can expect to pay about 10% more for family cover than a couples policy, and around an extra 40% going from a single to a single-parent policy.

What kind of family health insurance is available?

Like with health insurance for single people, Australia has 3 types of family health insurance to choose from:

Family hospital cover

This helps pay for in-hospital treatments at a private or public hospital, including theatre fees for surgery and accommodation. You usually get to choose your own doctor and the hospital you receive treatment at. There are 4 levels of cover to choose from: gold, silver, bronze and basic.

Family extras cover

This pays for the out-of-hospital services that Medicare doesn't generally cover. For example, dental, physio, some prescription medications and optometry.

Family combined cover

This is when you combine hospital and extras cover into a single policy. Lots of insurers offer combined packages tailored towards families.

When is family health insurance worth it?

There are a few times during your life that you might want to consider family health insurance. The type of cover you'll be likely to get will vary a lot, not only on your life stage, but also your financial situation.

Starting a family

If you plan to start a family, or want more kids, all gold level hospital policies are required to cover private childbirth. You'll need to have held this gold level cover for at least 12 months before you can claim for childbirth or fertility treatments such as IVF. Note that you don't actually need a 'family' policy to be covered for pregnancy, a single policy will do. You would only need to move to a family or single parent policy once you have a child that you want to cover as well.

Completed family

If you don't plan to have more children, then you might be able to drop pregnancy cover and save some money with silver or bronze cover. It's also probably worth getting extras insurance that includes dental cover – maybe even orthodontics (aka braces) as they get a little older.

Older children

Many family health insurance policies will cover your child as a dependant if they're under 31. Most funds have rules about the maximum age for children to be eligible, based on whether they're a dependant or student. If your current fund doesn't have high enough age limits for your family, it could be worth switching to one that does.

How long can children remain on a family policy?

Your children can be covered under your family health insurance policy until they're no longer considered a dependant. There are 2 main classifications that are typically used:

• Student dependant. A single person aged 21 to 25 who is studying full-time can be covered by a family policy.
• Adult dependant. A single person aged 21 to 25 (in some cases 31) who is not studying full-time but is dependent on their parents in some way e.g. they live with them.

The table below gives you to maximum ages specified by Aussie health funds, though you will need to check each fund's definition of what counts as a child, student or adult. Each fund sets these differently.

Health insurance tips for families

• Review your cover. As your children grow up and your circumstances change, so do your health insurance needs. Reviewing your policy each year ensures you have cover for the things that matter most to your family.
• Avoid combined limits. When considering an extras policy, try and find one that offers individual benefit limits for each service rather than overall combined limits. Your family may exceed individual limits if they aren't high enough.
• Don't be afraid to switch. If you find a better policy offered by a different health fund then consider changing. Your benefits and any served waiting periods must be honoured by your new fund.
• Split your cover. If one health fund has your ideal hospital policy, and another has the best extras policy, there is no law that says you can't have a separate policy for each.
• Get full ambulance cover. Look for policies that offer full ambulance cover, which pays benefits towards ambulance fees for non-life threatening journeys as well as emergency transport.

Rebates, tax and health insurance for families

• Private health insurance rebate. This was introduced by the Australian government to help more people access health insurance. The rebate amount varies depending on your combined family income and your age. It can be claimed either as a premium reduction through your fund or as part of your tax return.
• Medicare levy surcharge (MLS). The Australian government introduced the MLS to encourage more people to take out health insurance and reduce the strain on the public health system. If you don't have cover you pay an additional surcharge on top of the standard 2% Medicare Levy once your combined family income reaches $194,000 and above. This number changes most years and the income test includes superannuation, so make sure you check whether it will apply to you.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I get health insurance for my child only?

  Yes, but it's very uncommon and you might have trouble finding a health insurer that offers it. In most cases, you need to be 16 years or older to get health insurance which is why family health insurance is more common.

• Are ambulances covered by family policies?

  Yes. Emergency ambulance services are generally included in most family health insurance policies – typically under basic hospital cover.

• What's the best family health insurance?

  Every family is different so we can't tell you exactly what's the best for you. However, we have put together a page on the best health insurance policies based on factors such as popularity, rewards and customer service to help you narrow down who to go with.

• Does health insurance cover pregnancy?

  Yes. All gold level health insurance policies are required to cover pregnancy and assisted reproductive services. However, you must serve a 12-month waiting period.

• Do I have to pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge if I have a family policy?

  If your combined family income is $194,000 or more, you generally don't need to pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge if you have an appropriate level of hospital cover for your family. It's worth noting that the MLS income thresholds are different to most other means tested thresholds, in that it includes superannuation contributions.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Gary Ross Hunter

Journalist

Gary Ross Hunter has over 6 years of expertise writing about insurance, including life, health, home, and car insurance. Having reviewed hundreds of product disclosure statements and published over 800 articles, he loves simplifying complex insurance topics for everyday readers. Gary has contributed to major outlets like Yahoo Finance, The Sydney Morning Herald, and news.com.au, and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, along with a Tier 2 General Advice certification, ensuring his work adheres to ASIC’s RG146 standards. See full bio

Gary Ross's expertise

Gary Ross has written 597 Finder guides across topics including:

• Health, home, life, car, pet and travel insurance
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