Are You Considering Reviewing Your Cover?

There are many reasons people consider reviewing their level of cover. Some people need to upgrade to accommodate a changing lifestyle and prepare for new health needs ahead. Others might be considering lowering their level of cover to assist with managing the household budget.

Whatever the circumstances, before making any changes it’s important to be informed about the risks and how they might affect you.

Waiting periods

One key concern is waiting periods. These are specific amounts of time you need to wait before you are able to claim for certain aspects of your private health insurance. Each service has its own waiting period, ranging from 2 to 12 months. Once you’ve held a certain level of cover for the required time, you can start claiming that service. So, what happens when you change your level of cover?

If you increase to a higher level of cover, all members covered under the policy may have to serve new waiting periods for any of the new services. These waiting periods don’t apply to services that were already covered under the lower level. Therefore, for any new services you won’t be able to claim right away.

When decreasing to a lower level of cover, you won’t have to serve new waiting periods. However, if you decide to move back up again, you will have to re-serve waiting periods for those services you initially dropped. It’s important to consider the risks and know which services you might be forgoing if you decrease your level of cover.

Pre- existing conditions and planned surgeries

A pre-existing condition is any condition, illness, or ailment that you had signs or symptoms of in the six months before you upgraded to a higher hospital policy. This means that if you upgrade your cover, and you had symptoms of a condition covered by one of your new or upgraded services, your hospital admissions might not be able to be claimed for the first 12 months. This is why it’s important to periodically review your private health insurance to make sure it aligns with not only your current lifestyle, but also your future health needs.

When downgrading, it’s important to note which services you will no longer be covered for and ensure that if you have any planned surgeries coming up, they are not among the services you are downgrading or removing.

Cover for Families and Dependents

When changing your level of cover, whether upgrading or downgrading, keep in mind the impact it may have to anyone else on the policy, including partners and dependents. If it’s only one member on the policy that needs to change their level of cover, one option could be to move from one family membership to two separate policies: one single parent policy and one single adult policy.

If you decide this option could work for you, it’s important to consider any discounts that may currently be applied to your policy. For example, if you are receiving a 10% veterans discount thanks to an ex-serving member on your policy, removing that member may have an impact on the discount you are receiving.

It’s a good idea to review the value of any discount you might be forgoing, against the savings created by splitting your membership into two.

How can I change my level of cover?

Decided you want to change your level of cover? The first step is exploring your available cover options. You can do that by visiting our website (link to cover page), where you can find all our different cover levels as well as the waiting periods for each service. Alternatively, give us a call, and our friendly team can help walk you through your options.

Once you know what level of cover you would like to change to, it’s as easy as giving us a call to confirm and set it up or emailing us at query@navyhealth.com.au.

*The information in this article is for general information only. Navy Health is not a financial adviser. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice to check how the information in this article relates to your unique circumstances. Navy Health is not liable for any loss caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information provided directly or indirectly, by use of this article.