If you have extras health insurance, you probably have limited time left to use your annual benefits before you lose them for 2024.

For most health insurance funds, extras benefits expire on 31 December 2024, and reset on 1 January 2025. This means any unused 2024 benefits, such as dental, will typically not roll over to the next year and if you don’t use them, they are gone forever. However, if your benefits do not expire at the end of the year, it’s still a great time to review your entitlements and make the most of any unused benefits before their respective reset dates.

 

What is an annual limit?

An annual limit is the maximum amount you can claim from your health insurance provider for a certain extras service. Annual limits vary between health funds and with different levels of cover.

Annual limits typically apply to many health services within extras cover, including dental (general and major), orthodontics, optical, physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, podiatry, speech pathology, massage, counselling and health management programs.

There is usually a set benefit per visit or service, with a cap on the annual maximum benefit per type of service.

If you’ve been putting off using a service that is in your extras cover, such as any final dental work for the year, you have until the end of December to book an appointment and make the most of your health benefits before they reset.

 

Typical annual limits for extras are¹:

• $700 for general dental
• $250 for optical (glasses and contact lenses)
• $500 for physiotherapy
• $450 for chiropractic
• $400 for massage

The benefits for each treatment vary between policies, but median health insurance benefits per service¹ are:

• $35 for general dental (examination)
• $225 for optical (single vision spectacles)
• $40 for physiotherapy
• $40 for chiropractic
• $33 for massage

(Note that these figures represent the median for the first visit for a service – benefits usually decrease with subsequent services.)

When do your extra benefits reset?

The annual maximum limits reset each year. Most funds use the calendar year, so the reset occurs on 1 January. Some funds use the financial year (1 July to 30 June) and a few reset on the date you joined. It’s important to note that annual benefit limits only apply to extras, as hospital cover doesn’t involve a limit on benefits.

Be sure to check with your health insurance provider if you are unsure of when your benefits reset, and make sure you’re aware of what they deem to be the start of a new year.

Health funds that reset their extras benefits on 1 January:

• ACA Health Benefits Fund
• APIA
• Australian Unity
• Bupa
• CBHS
• CBHS Corporate Health
• CUA
• Doctors’ Health Fund
• Emergency Services Health
• Frank Health Insurance
• GMHBA
• HBF
• HCF
• HCI
• HIF
• Health Partners
• Medibank 
• Mildura Health Fund
• MyOwn
• NIB
• Nurses and Midwives Health
• Phoenix Health Fund
• Qantas Health Insurance
• RACQ
• RBHS
• rt health fund
• St.LukesHealth
• Teachers Health
• Transport Health
• TUH 
• UniHealth
• Union Health
• Westfund

Health funds that reset their extras benefits on 1 July:

• ahm health insurance
• Defence Health
• onemedifund (OMF)
• Navy Health
• Peoplecare Health Insurance

Queensland Country Health Fund resets their extras benefits based on the membership year.

 

 

What are combined limits and sub-limits?

Combined limits and sub-limits may also apply to extras cover. A sub-limit is an extra limitation on your medical insurance claim by your health insurance provider. For example, your policy may have a combined annual limit of $500 for dentures, crowns and bridges, and within that there may be a sub-limit of $300 on each service . This sub-limit is deducted from the total annual limit. Therefore you could claim a maximum of $300 for any of those services in the year, and if you claimed $300 on bridges, you would have $200 remaining to claim against one or both of the other services.

A combined annual limit is the maximum amount of money you can claim, distributed across a group of services. For example, your policy may provide a maximum of $300 cover for each of the following services: physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathy, and then these services may be put into one category with a combined limit of $700.

Don’t lose your 2024 extras benefits

As we head towards the end of 2024, now is the perfect time to use up those extras services which still have benefits available to you.

From dentistry to physiotherapy, podiatry to optometry and more, find and book your final year appointments quickly and easily on Healthengine.

Click here to search specialties and find appointments on Healthengine ➜

References

¹Choice.com.au: Make the Most of Your Extras Cover November 2023

Finder.com.au: Health Insurance Annual Benefit Limits

Private Health: Compare Policies

Insuranceopedia: Sublimits

HBF: Annual limits explained