What is a waiting period?
A waiting period is the amount of time you have to wait before you can start to claim on your health insurance. Waiting periods apply to both hospital and extras covers and you cannot claim for procedures/services that you receive during a waiting period.
Waiting periods apply when you join, upgrade your cover, reduce your excess or re-join after a break in cover. The period you may need to wait varies depending on the level of cover you’ve chosen, and in the case of Working Visa Covers, whether you were insured previously. Check your product fact sheet for full details about your selected cover.
If you have Private Health Insurance (for Australian citizens and permanent residents), you can find out about waiting periods here.
Switching from another Australian health fund
If you were previously covered by an insurer outside of Australia, you will be considered as a new member and all applicable waiting periods will apply.
If you are transferring from another registered Australian private health insurance fund, you need to purchase health cover with us within 30 days of cancelling your old cover and provide a Transfer Certificate (sometimes also called a Clearance Certificate) from your previous insurer.
Depending on the cover you purchase with us, we will recognise the following:
-
Non-working and working holiday visa covers: the initial two-month waiting period will be waived.
-
Working visa covers and extras covers: Australian Unity will recognise the waiting periods you’ve already completed under an equivalent or higher level cover.
Getting your permanent residency (PR)
As far as your health insurance is concerned, a resident is someone who is eligible for full Medicare entitlements.
Once you get your permanent residency, you can switch from your Australian Unity Overseas Visitors Cover to a resident’s Private Health Insurance cover. As long as you cancel your old cover on the same day as you start your new cover, we will recognise all waiting periods you have already completed and apply those to your new cover.
If your Overseas Visitors Cover is with another health fund and you are switching to Australian Unity Private Health Insurance, you will be considered as a new member and all applicable waiting periods will apply.
To find out more about waiting periods, call us on 13 29 39 or visit the Private Health government website.
