Compare health insurance from the public file, not from a quote form
Choose a household and the lowest hospital tier you would accept: the table ranks every state by its cheapest open policy that avoids the surcharge.
Cheapest exempt policy, single, no children
$39.30 a month
In Northern Territory, before the rebate and any loading. PrivateHealth.gov.au file of 2026-10-01.
| Northern Territory | $39.30 |
| Western Australia | $78.86 |
| South Australia | $98.81 |
| State or territory | Hospital tier | Insurer | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Territory | Basic | ahm health insurance | $39.30 | $472 |
| Western Australia | Basic | see-u by HBF | $78.86 | $946 |
| South Australia | Basic | see-u by HBF | $98.81 | $1,186 |
| Tasmania | Basic | HBF Health Limited | $100.42 | $1,205 |
| Victoria | Basic | ahm health insurance | $102.10 | $1,225 |
| NSW and ACT | Basic | ahm health insurance | $102.60 | $1,231 |
| Queensland | Basic | see-u by HBF | $102.99 | $1,236 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · thresholds read on ato.gov.au, premiums from privatehealth.gov.au data · not tax advice
Comparing health insurance in Australia does not require a quote form. The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman publishes every policy on sale, with its premium in each state, its hospital tier and its excess, and releases the whole file each month on data.gov.au. In the release of 1 October 2026 we count 455 open single policies in Victoria that avoid the Medicare levy surcharge, sold by 22 insurers, and 3,129 such state and policy combinations across the country. Inside one state and one tier the spread is wide: a Victorian single Gold policy costs from $248.55 a month before the rebate, while the median Gold policy costs $418.25. Comparison sites show the policies of insurers they have agreements with. The table on this page shows the cheapest of all of them, for each state and tier, and stops there. It is a starting point for your own reading of each policy statement, not a recommendation of any insurer.
What the public file contains
The Ombudsman publishes the details of every policy on sale on PrivateHealth.gov.au and, in bulk, on data.gov.au. For each policy the file gives the insurer, the policy name, the states where it is sold, the kind of cover (single, couple, single parent, family), the hospital tier, the excess and the monthly premium. That is enough to answer the one question most comparison services avoid putting in a table: what is the cheapest policy that does a given job, in a given state, for a given household?
We apply three filters. We keep hospital and combined policies with an excess of no more than $750 per person and $1,500 per policy, because only those avoid the surcharge. We drop the 9 restricted funds, corporate products and policies sold only together with another one, because most readers cannot buy them. And we keep the rest, every insurer, with no ranking by commission. The method page gives the counts at each step.
Victoria, single cover: the spread inside each tier
| Hospital tier | Policies | Cheapest a month | Median a month | Median above cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 23 | $102.10 | $112.85 | 11 % |
| Basic Plus | 55 | $110.33 | $126.45 | 15 % |
| Bronze | 23 | $132.80 | $146.05 | 10 % |
| Bronze Plus | 94 | $127.93 | $156.88 | 23 % |
| Silver | 16 | $179.35 | $204.60 | 14 % |
| Silver Plus | 203 | $167.45 | $266.95 | 59 % |
| Gold | 41 | $248.55 | $418.25 | 68 % |
Two patterns come out of the table. The first is that the tier is not a price band: some Plus policies of a lower tier cost more than the cheapest policy of the tier above, because Plus policies add categories of treatment beyond the minimum. The second is that the gap between the cheapest and the median policy grows as you move up. At the Basic tier the median is 11 % above the cheapest; at Gold it is 68 % above. Two Gold policies are not the same product, since they differ in the hospitals the insurer has agreements with, the extras bundled with them and the gap arrangements, none of which the file prices.
Cheapest Silver or better, family cover
Cheapest Silver-or-better exempt policy, couple with children
$138.90 a month
| Northern Territory | $138.90 |
| Western Australia | $262.56 |
| NSW and ACT | $314.60 |
The same comparison for a family
A family policy in Victoria starts at $204.20 a month before the rebate, with a median of $451.90 across 861 open policies. Family premiums are about twice single ones for the same policy, and the rebate is the same percentage, so the comparison with the surcharge depends on the combined income. A family whose income for MLS purposes is over $210,000 must cover both partners and every dependent child to avoid the surcharge; one person left out and the household pays it. The families page works through the thresholds with children.
What a comparison should check, in order
- Does it remove the surcharge? Hospital cover, a registered Australian insurer, an excess within the limits. Extras only, Overseas Visitors Health Cover and foreign insurers do not count.
- What does it cover? Read the Private Health Information Statement. A Basic policy can cost less than half the price of a Gold one because it covers far less; the Basic cover page looks at what that means.
- What does it cost you? The full premium, minus your rebate percentage, plus your Lifetime Health Cover loading if you have one. The cover calculator on the home page does that sum with your own premium.
- How does it compare with not buying? Above the threshold, set that net cost against the surcharge. Below it, there is no tax at stake, and the only penalty for waiting is the loading that builds up after your base day.
Why we name the cheapest policy and nothing else
The surcharge comparison needs a price, and the honest price to use is the lowest one any reader could actually pay. So the calculators name the cheapest open policy of the file for each state and household, ahm health insurance at $102.10 for a Basic single policy in Victoria at the time of writing. Naming it is not an endorsement. We have no agreement with any insurer, receive no referral fee and do not collect your details, and the policy that is cheapest this month may not be next month: premiums change every 1 April and the file is republished every month. Check the date of the release at the foot of each table before you rely on a premium, and read the policy statement on PrivateHealth.gov.au before you buy anything.