Health insurance for single parents

From bumps and tumbles to chronic or unexpected illnesses, there’s always a chance that your child may end up as an inpatient in hospital, no matter how careful you are. Having an appropriate level of private hospital cover gives you peace of mind and choice if something happens.

The hospital services you’ll be insured for will depend on your level of cover. Hospital cover is divided into four tiers: Basic, Bronze, Silver and Gold, each covering a broader range of clinical categories (e.g. a standard Bronze hospital policy includes 18 unrestricted clinical categories and 3 restricted clinical categories, while a Gold hospital policy includes all 38 unrestricted clinical categories). Certain policies may also include select categories from the tier above, and these are known as ‘Plus’ or ‘+’ policies (e.g. a Silver Plus policy could cover joint replacement, but not weight loss surgery).

Keep in mind that your health insurance will not cover private emergency room fees since you’re not technically admitted to hospital. Your single parent health insurance will come into effect once you’re admitted to hospital as an inpatient or need further surgery following your emergency room visit.

As a single parent, it can be hard to predict your child’s needs as they grow. You might need to pay for out of hospital services such as glasses, speech therapy, physiotherapy or even orthodontic work. These upfront costs can be substantial, and since they don’t require inpatient hospital treatment, a hospital insurance policy will not pay a benefit. However, extras cover (sometimes called general treatment) may help with these costs.

Thankfully, some general dental costs for children are partially covered by Medicare until they turn 17.¹ However, you might still want to consider extras cover for preventative or major dental, which could save you money in the long run.

Extras family cover is subject to various limits such as per person and annual limits, so make sure you know exactly what’s included before claiming for extras services, as there is a good chance you’ll still have some out-of-pocket costs.

Yes, private health insurance policies for single parents will cost more than single adult policies. This is where single parent health insurance differs from a family policy, since couples can often add dependents at no additional cost. However, health insurance for single parents still typically costs less than a two-parent family policy.

When you take out private hospital or extras cover in Australia, you may be eligible to claim the private health insurance rebate, depending on your income. This rebate allows you to either receive a lower premium for your health insurance or claim a percentage of your premiums back at tax time.

The rebate you’re entitled to is based on the income threshold you fall under and your age. As a single parent, your income is tested by the family thresholds, so if you earn under $194,000, you’ll be eligible for the highest possible rebate for your age.

If you’re separating from your partner and you’re on a family policy, you’ll both need to move to singles policies instead. However, for dependant/s to be covered, one of you will need to take out a single parent policy. You can then request an additional membership card to give to your co-parent so they can take your child to any medical appointments like dentists or the physio.

If you’re in the process of separating from your partner, there are a couple of other things you should keep in mind regarding health insurance:

• Waiting periods. You won’t need to re-serve your waiting periods when you switch to an equal (or lower) level of extras or hospital insurance cover, provided you’ve already completed those waiting periods previously and are switching from an active policy. If your policy is no longer active, your new health fund may still honour any waiting periods that you have already served provided you switch to your new policy within a set number of days as nominated by the fund. You should contact your new health fund to understand their rules regarding waiting periods if you are unsure.
• Switching could save you money. Moving from a family health insurance policy to a single parent policy can typically be done through a simple phone call. Switching to single parent cover could also affect your eligibility for the Australian Government rebate, as you’ll still fall under the family income threshold but you and your partner’s income will no longer be combined.

Your health insurance can cover your children, but you’ll have to change to a single parent policy if you currently have singles health cover. If you’re looking to switch over, an easy way to do this is by using our free health insurance comparison service.

Some health funds might offer policies just for your children. However, you should consider including yourself in any policy you purchase since your health is also important to your family. What’s more, most health insurance providers offer policies for single parent families, so this would probably be a simpler option than children-only cover.

This will depend on your policy, but your children can often stay on your single parent health insurance cover until they turn 21. However, some health funds allow dependants to stay on their parent’s policy up to the age of 31.

In some cases, your dependent child must be studying full-time to be covered for the maximum age limit without incurring an additional cost, so it’s a good idea to check with your health fund for the terms and conditions that apply to you.