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Australians risk leaving thousands of dollars on the table in unclaimed private health insurance extras that expire at the start of the new year.
Most insurers reset their benefits on January 1, with new research from comparison site iSelect finding 86 per cent of Australians are not using all their extras.
One in five didn’t use any extras, and 12 percent weren’t sure if they did or not.
It found that retirees had the highest rate of under-utilisation, with 91 per cent saying they were either not sure or hadn’t used some or all of their extras.
The data was drawn from a commissioned survey of 1,003 Australians.
“Most – but not all – private health insurers reset their supplementary service limits on 1 January each year and many Australian families could potentially miss out on hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in unused supplementary benefits,” iSelect General Manager Health Insurance Andres Gutierrez said.
“With some of our most popular extras policies including around $1,750 in extra benefits, it is likely that many policyholders will have a thousand dollars or more in unused extra benefits that they will lose by December 31st.
“Of course, some extras policies have much higher limits, with those policyholders potentially having several thousand dollars or more in unused extras benefits.
“With the New Year approaching, now is the time to make sure you’ve gotten the most out of your extras policy over the last 12 months.
“Check your claim history to see what you’ve already claimed and how much you still have available.
“With most funds, you can easily check your claim history either through an app or an online portal. Otherwise, call your fund and they will be able to provide you with a claim history for 2024.
“If you still have benefits available, make the most of them.”
Compare Market’s Chris Ford said millions of Australians could be throwing away their hard-earned money.
“For some health insurers – including AIA, Australian Unity, Bupa, Frank, GMHBA, HCF, HIF, NIB, Qantas, see-u, Union Health and Westfund – the reset occurs at the end of each calendar year,” Ford said.
“If you have an Extra Services policy or a combined Extra Services policy and hospital health insurance with one of these insurers, now is the time to book that dental cleaning, book that physiotherapy appointment or lock in your final appointments to get the most out of can more than your policy for additional services you can.”
Compare the Market said services that can be claimed include general dental, major dental, orthodontic, optical and physiotherapy services, among others.
“The last thing we want to see is people leaving things to the last minute and missing out on asking for everything they’re entitled to,” Ford said.
“Some health professionals close their practices during the holiday period or work different hours. You may also find it harder to get an appointment with the influx of people trying to get in before Christmas.
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