Australian Unity health insurance

Yes, all Australian Unity Hospital, Combination and Extras products cover you for unlimited Emergency Ambulance Transportation to hospital (where coded and invoiced as an emergency). All products also include two ambulance attendances per person per calendar year, where you’re not taken to hospital.

Benefits are not payable if the ambulance service is already covered by your state scheme/ambulance subscription.

Yes, Australian Unity will cover you for pre-existing conditions, provided the service is covered on your policy, and you’ve served the relevant waiting periods. For hospital services relating to a pre-existing condition, waiting periods are 12 months across all health funds.

If you’ve already served a waiting period for your pre-existing condition with a previous health fund, you won’t have to re-serve your waiting period with Australian Unity if the service has similar or lower benefits. A pre-existing condition also won’t affect your waiting periods or eligibility for extras services.

For hospital cover, the waiting periods are standard: 12 months for pregnancy and birth (if covered) and pre-existing conditions (excluding psychiatry, palliative care and rehab) and 2 months for everything else.

The waiting period for extras products typically range from 0-12 months except for services which have no waiting period including: ambulance (attendance/ emergency transportation), dental (preventative/ diagnostic services), weight loss programs, home nursing, on-site accommodation, cervical cancer vaccinations, quit smoking, personal health coaching, doctor health checks and travel vaccinations.

If you are transferring from another registered Australian private health insurance fund, you need to take out health cover with us within 30 days of cancelling your old policy to ensure continuity of cover. A gap in cover greater than 30 days means that you will have to re-serve all waiting periods. Days without hospital cover may be considered absent days for Lifetime Health Cover purposes, and you may also impact your liability for the Medicare Levy Surcharge.

When you transfer with us at Compare the Market, we will provide Australian Unity with your previous fund details. With your permission Australian Unity will request a Transfer Certificate from your previous fund. The certificate confirms waiting periods already served on your previous cover. If your new benefits are greater than previous fund benefits you may have to serve waiting periods for the additional benefits. Extras claims you have made in this calendar year will be deducted against the yearly benefit limits for equivalent services, until they reset on 1 January where relevant lifetime limits will also be deducted.

For services covered on your extras policy, you can claim on-the-spot through your healthcare provider’s HICAPS machine, or submit a claim for reimbursement through the online members portal, Australian Unity app, phone or mail.

For hospital claims, the hospital will typically reach out to Australian Unity directly to settle the bill or if you prefer you can submit medical claims for reimbursement via the methods listed above.

You can pay your Australian Unity premiums by direct debit or account notice.

When you pay by direct debit, you’ll receive a 4% discount on your premiums. You can pay fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly.

When you pay using your account notice, you’ll receive a 2% discount when you pay half-yearly and a 4% discount when you pay annually (this discount is not applicable to Overseas Visitors Cover). You can make payments by account notice through the mobile app, online portal, Bpay and over the phone.

Yes, you will typically have to pay an excess when you’re admitted to hospital and claim on your private health insurance.

On all Australian Unity hospital policies, you can choose to pay an excess. If you choose a higher excess, you will pay a lower premium and vice versa. On most products, the excess will only apply once per person per calendar year and no excess will apply for dependants.

Some products also include co-payments. More information about excesses and co-payments is available on the product Fact Sheets.

To cancel your Australian Unity health insurance, you’ll need to contact their customer service team and they’ll walk you through the process. Depending on your reason for wanting to cancel, you might want to consider suspending your cover instead.

When you suspend your cover, you don’t have to pay any premiums and won’t be covered, but you also won’t accrue any days without cover towards the Lifetime Health Cover loading. You also won’t have to re-serve any waiting period when you reinstate your cover.