When it comes to healthcare, it’s important your children are covered for the services they need. Kids are likely to have more frequent medical appointments when they’re younger. For example, they’ll need regular dental visits from an early age, and later treatments such as orthodontics can quickly add to out-of-pocket costs.
From hospital treatment to everyday care, choosing the right level of health insurance can help protect your children and manage healthcare costs as they grow.
What are my options for health insurance for my kids?
In most cases, children can’t take out standalone private health insurance policies. Instead, they’ll need to be covered under a policy held by a parent or guardian.
This could be either a:
- Family health insurance policy: this covers two adults and their dependants on the same plan.
- Single parent health insurance policy: this covers one adult and their dependants on the same plan.
The coverage you can get is the same under both types of policies. The only difference is the price, with single parent plans cheaper than their family plan equivalent due to the number of adults included.
If you are on a singles or couples health plan, you will need to upgrade to a family or single parent policy in order to add a dependant. A child can be added from birth or at any time up until the permitted age limit on the plan.
Will my children need to serve waiting periods?
A waiting period is the amount of time you need to wait after taking out or upgrading a health insurance policy before you can claim benefits for certain treatments or services. Waiting periods vary depending on the type of treatment – for example, many standard services have a waiting period of around two months, while others may require 12 months or more before you can claim.
In many cases, if the adult on the policy has already served the waiting periods, a child can be added to the plan without needing to serve new waiting periods, as long as they’re added within the insurer’s required time frame.
For example, if you already have a family or single parent policy, a newborn or newly adopted child can usually be added to the policy within 12 months of birth or joining the family without needing to serve waiting periods.
If you’re upgrading from a singles policy to a single parent or family policy, the time frame for adding a child without waiting periods is typically shorter, often around two to three months.
However, if an adult dependant wants to join or rejoin a family policy and hasn’t previously held private health insurance, they’ll generally need to serve the standard waiting periods before claiming.
What does private health insurance for kids cover?
When it comes to private health insurance for children, you’ll have the choice of hospital cover, extras cover or a combined policy that bundles both. The right level of cover will depend on your family’s needs, including your child’s health and the types of services you expect to use most often.
Hospital cover
Hospital plans help pay for treatment when your child is admitted to hospital as a private patient. Policies are available in four tiers, each offering a higher level of cover:
- Basic: offers limited cover, including accidents and emergency ambulance services where they aren’t already covered by the state.
- Bronze: includes treatment for common childhood procedures such as ear, nose and throat treatments, tonsils, adenoids and grommets, as well as appendix or digestive issues.
- Silver: covers services such as dental surgery performed in hospital and hearing-related procedures.
- Gold: covers all clinical categories, including pregnancy and birth services.
Extras cover
Extras cover helps pay for healthcare services outside hospital that usually aren’t covered by Medicare.
There are different levels of cover to choose from, but even lower-level extras plans will include benefits for services such as general dental, optical care and physiotherapy, helping to reduce out-of-pocket costs without higher premiums.
Higher-level plans may include additional services, such as:
- Major dental treatment
- Speech therapy
- Hearing tests and hearing aids
- Orthodontics, including braces
- School accident benefits
Combined hospital and extras plans
You can also choose a combined policy that packages hospital and extras cover together. Many insurers allow you to mix and match different levels of cover, so you can tailor the policy to your family’s needs.
For example, you might choose Basic hospital cover with higher extras if you only want emergency hospital cover but a wider range of outpatient benefits, or Silver hospital cover with lower extras if you want more extensive hospital protection but only basic extras such as eye tests and dental check-ups.
"As you can’t take out a standalone health insurance policy for your children, your extras policy could get costly. For your kids, you might want cover for things like orthodontics, optical care and speech therapy. However, you’ll also need to pay to cover yourself for these services, even if you don’t need them. It also works the other way around. If you want pregnancy cover, chiro or dietetics, you’d also be paying for coverage for your kids."
How long can kids stay on their parents’ insurance policy?
As a general rule, children are covered on a family health insurance policy until they turn 21, but many health funds allow dependants to remain on the policy until age 31 or 32, if eligible.
- Full-time students who aren’t married or living with a partner may be able to stay on the family policy at no additional cost.
- Dependants who aren’t studying full time may still be able to remain on the policy if they aren’t married or living with a partner, but an additional premium will apply.
Staying on the family health plan is often cheaper than taking out an individual policy, which can be especially appealing for a young person studying or just starting out in the workforce.
However, it is important for a dependant to look into taking out their own insurance policy by the time they are 31 in order to avoid Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading, which increases the cost of your hospital cover by 2% for every year you are aged over 31 when you first purchase a policy.
Dependants with disabilities
There is no upper age limit for dependants with recognised disabilities, meaning they may be able to remain on a family policy indefinitely instead of taking out their own cover, provided the health fund offers this option.
How much will health insurance for kids cost?
The cost of a health insurance plan covering children depends on the type of policy, level of cover, excess, where you live and whether it’s a single parent or family plan.
The table below shows the price range of plans available through Savvy in March 2026, from the cheapest plans offering the most basic level of cover to the most comprehensive insurance available.
| Policy type | Hospital policy | Extras policy | Combined policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family policy | $72 – $222 | $16 – $153 | $90 – $375 |
| Single parent policy | $58 – $189 | $13 – $108 | $74 – $297 |
| Source: Compare Club, March 2026. Range shown is for 40-year-old adults based in Sydney on a base-tier income, with a $750 excess selected for the cheapest hospital policy and $250 for the most expensive. |
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How much will it cost to add children to my health insurance plan?
If you’re moving from a singles policy onto a single parent or family plan, you should be prepared for a significant increase in premiums. Many couples plans, however, cost the same as a family plan, allowing you to add children for no extra cost.
The table below shows the lowest available singles and couples premiums through Savvy as of March 2025:
| Policy type | Hospital policy | Extras policy | Combined policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singles policy | $36 | $8 | $45 |
| Couples policy | $72 | $16 | $90 |
| Source: Compare Club, March 2026. Range shown is for 40-year-old adults based in Sydney on a base-tier income, with a $750 excess selected for hospital policies. |
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Adding more children to your policy will not increase the cost, and there is also no limit on the number of children that you add to your family plan.
Factors to consider when comparing health insurance for children
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Check the age limit for dependent children
Look into the age limits the insurer sets for dependants and what the extra costs are for keeping older children on the plan.
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Make sure the plan covers your needs
Make sure what you want covered is included. For example, if you know your child may need braces, you might want an extras plan with orthodontics. It’s also worth making sure you’re not paying for services you’re unlikely to use.
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Understand the policy limits
Check the limits that apply to the policy. As well as a per-person limit, family policies may also have an overall annual limit that’s shared across everyone on the plan, as well as limits for specific treatments.
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Look for waived excess for children
Some health funds waive the hospital excess for children on family policies. This means you won’t have to pay the excess if your child needs to be admitted to hospital.
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Consider special offers and additional benefits
Many insurers offer extra services beyond standard cover, such as health and wellbeing programs, which can provide additional support for you and your children.
