Health insurance to suit your needs

You can get health cover for yourself, you and your partner, or for your whole family. Generally, there are four categories of membership:

• 1 adult (single)
• 2 adults (couple)
• 2 adults and any number of dependant^* children (family)
• 1 adult and any number of dependant^* children (single parent)

HBF is a not-for-profit health fund. A not-for-profit uses any money it makes to further its business objectives and cover the cost of running the business, like paying utilities bills and staff. Any surplus earnings (profits) are also used to help further the not-for-profit's mission.

For-profit businesses have the same overheads as not-for-profits, however they use some or all profits to pay shareholders or investors.

In Australia, insurance is either 'community rated' or 'risk rated'. Health insurance is 'community rated'. Community rating is part of private health insurance legislation and dictates that everyone living in the same state is entitled to get private health insurance and pay the same base price for the same health insurance policies. This means health funds cannot set a person's health insurance premium using individual factors like age, gender, lifestyle or physical condition.