Health Cover
Chronic conditions are the boundary private health cover will not cross
Private medical policies are built to pay for episodes that end. A condition that never ends sits on the other side of the line.
Health Cover
What health policies include, exclude and make you wait for.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
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Waiting periods are the part of health cover nobody reads
A health policy that is active is not necessarily a health policy that will pay. The gap is measured in months.
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Outpatient cover is where two health policies stop being comparable
Inpatient benefits look similar across the market. The outpatient limit is where the price difference actually lives.
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Guided hospital lists: a cheaper premium bought with a shorter menu
Restricted-network health policies work by narrowing where you can be treated. That trade is real value for some people and a trap…
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Pre-authorisation, not the invoice, decides whether treatment is paid
A health policy that covers a procedure will still decline it if nobody asked first. The call before treatment is a condition of…
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Health cash plans do a different job from health insurance
A cash plan reimburses small everyday costs up to a fixed annual sum. It is a budgeting device with an insurance wrapper, and…
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Why health premiums rise every year even when you never claim
Three separate forces push medical premiums up, and only one of them has anything to do with you.
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Excess, co-payment and co-insurance are three different bills
Health policies share cost with you in three distinct ways, and a quote can be cheap because it uses all three at once.
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Dental and optical cover is budgeting dressed as insurance
Routine dental and eye care is predictable, frequent and modest. Those are exactly the conditions under which pooling adds nothing.
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Mental health is where private medical cover is narrowest
Cover for psychiatric treatment is usually capped in days, sessions or money, and is the section that varies most between insurers.
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What happens to health cover when you leave the employer that bought it
Company medical schemes end with employment, and the individual policy offered afterwards is not automatically the same cover.
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What a health insurer can see in your medical records
At a significant claim, the insurer will usually ask for records rather than take your word. Knowing what that reveals changes how…