Covers you for short term illness that may cause temporary loss of income or a long term permanent disability, there are a range of health insurances available.

New Zealand has a public healthcare system that will look after you in an emergency or a critical illness and ACC covers you for accidental injury. For non-acute surgery, diagnostic procedures etc. the public system will prioritise your case and put you on a waiting list based on the acuteness of illness or injury. This is where health insurance can help, when you have health insurance you can get the treatment you need, when you need it and it by-passes the waiting lists.

Benefits of having health insurance

The benefits of health insurance include:

• • avoiding public hospital waiting lists
• • you can afford private treatment
• • choice over when and where you receive treatment for qualifying medical conditions
• • hospital stays are often in private rooms

There are three main types of health insurance:

• • Surgery only;
• • Surgery & Specialist;
• • Comprehensive – surgery, specialist, doctor and prescription.

Because of cost, most people opt for either Surgery only or Surgery & Specialist; within these 2 categories are different levels of cover which will also affect the annual cost of the insurance.