Save $$$ On Health Cover: Insider's Guide

There’s no point in having private health cover that suits someone else. All that means is you’ll be paying for things you just don’t need.

A quality private health insurer like nib offers a variety of cover options to help you get the right option for you and your family:

Everyday cover looks after your needs around the regular healthcare costs that can come up from time to time. Things like GP visits and prescriptions, dental treatment, eye exams, mental health consultations and a variety of other everyday charges.

Hospital cover suits those people who want to potentially skip the public hospital waiting times, without assessment to see if you meet the public hospital waiting list criteria. nib offers both Standard and Premium options to cover the big stuff, like cancer treatment, surgery, specialist consultations, as well as a range of post-treatment care options. The Premium option however will provide some further benefits such as post-hospital therapeutic care and obstetrics when compared to the Standard option.

Combined cover, as the name suggests, brings the best of everyday and hospital cover together in one package with a comprehensive plan to give you total peace of mind.

This is just a question of personal preference.

If you’d like to keep your regular premium a bit lower and then receive 60% of the approved cost of treatment back, then you may choose a Standard policy.

If on the other hand, you’d prefer to get 80% of your approved cost back after treatment and are happy to pay a little more for your premium, then you might find the Premium option is better for you.

Either way is good. Both take the stress of a big lump sum payment off your mind, give you quality medical support when you need it and help you manage your outgoings in an affordable way.

Just like with your car or home insurance, an excess is a contribution you are required to pay towards a claim you make on your policy. The excess is paid directly to the hospital. By agreeing to pay an excess, it also reduces the cost of your premiums.

With nib’s Standard Hospital and Premium Hospital plans, you can choose between nil, $250, $500, $1,000 and $2,000 excess options.

Once again, the excess you choose is entirely up to you. What works for someone else won’t necessarily suit your needs. So have a think and work out the excess that works best to your advantage.

Seeing an nib First Choice provider can cost you less.

nib has a directory of providers (which you can find here - nibfirstchoice.co.nz/directory/) who offer treatment within nib’s First Choice price range. This means 100% of eligible costs will be covered.

Many of these providers are also able to manage pre-approval before treatment and lodge claims directly with nib on your behalf. You’ll find this is a big help (less paperwork for you).

It all gives you the confidence of knowing that if you ever need to seek treatment, you’ve got it covered, with no hidden costs and no other concerns apart from getting back to full health.

The nib team are trained to help you find private health insurance cover that fits you and your family to a tee.

There’s also other clever cost-saving tips, like aligning your payments to your salary cycle, with weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual payment options.

Again, what works for you works for nib, because we’re all about making private health insurance as affordable as possible for as many Kiwis as we can.

So why not talk to us today? Let us help you create a plan that works perfectly for you and yours.