With my son turning 31 this year, he would no longer be eligible to remain on our family policy for private health insurance.
In the past, most private health insurers restricted dependants who could stay on family health insurance policies to full-time students up to the age of 24. After the age of 24, young people who did not take out their own private health insurance depended on the public hospital system.
In July 2000, the Australian Government introduced lifetime health cover loading to encourage more people to take out private health cover before the age of 31. In 2022, to try to bridge this gap, the Australian Government introduced voluntary reforms to the health insurance industry, which included:
- increasing the maximum allowable age of dependents on family private health insurance policies from 24 to 31 years
- removing the age limit for dependants with a disability.
I had already taken advantage of the 2022 reform allowing dependents to remain on the family health insurance policy until the age of 31. This voluntary reform was taken up by many insurers, increasing of the age of dependents from 24 to 31, with some insurers removing the requirement for dependents to be full-time students and living at home.
Very few health insurers implemented the reform to remove the age limit of dependants with a disability. With my son’s birthday in mind, I decided to look into it again this year. This is what I found.
There are hundreds (maybe thousands!) of health insurers. I looked at a few of the insurance comparison websites and none of them said anything about dependants with disability and none were able to provide me with any information about this when I phoned them.
I finally found this article on the Choice website. It lists the following insurers who will provide cover for NDIS participants over the age of 31 on their parent’s policy:
- HCI
- Doctors’ Health
- Emergency Services Health
- Police Health
- Reserve Bank
- Westfund.
(NOTE: The Choice article also included OneMediFund but they do not mention dependants with disability on their website, and they told me on the phone that they do not offer this option, so their inclusion on the Choice website seems to be incorrect.)
Four of these insurers are for members of a specific workforce and their families and may be worth exploring if you or anyone in your family has any connection to those workforces.
I received quotes from the insurers I contacted and did my own cost comparison, taking into consideration other circumstances within my family. I enquired if it was an additional cost to the policy and read some reviews. I have now switched my family’s health insurance over to one of the above funds just before my son’s birthday, and chose one that does not charge extra to have him included. My son will continue to be covered while he remains an NDIS participant.
I am excited that this option is now available, even if it is only a handful of insurers. I hope that other health insurers offer this in the future to give us more choice.
Not all families have or want private health insurance or extras, but for those who do it may be worth looking into.
Janice Chan