Private health insurance in Tasmania: funds, hospitals and ambulance

Tasmania's private hospitals and the funds with agreements

An agreement hospital has a contract with your fund that sets what the fund pays, which usually means lower or no out-of-pocket hospital costs for you. Without an agreement you can still be treated there as a private patient, but your fund may pay less and you may be left with a bill. So the first question for Tasmanian cover is whether the hospital you'd use has an agreement with the fund.

For six of Tasmania's seven private hospitals the answer is yes for every insurer. Hobart Private Hospital is the exception: ahm, see-u by HBF, HCi (Health Care Insurance), Latrobe Health Services, Medibank, Navy Health, Queensland Country Health Fund, TUH Health Fund and Westfund had no agreement with it at 1 October 2026. If you're likely to be treated there, check before you join.

Day hospitals in Tasmania

Day hospitals handle same-day procedures such as eye surgery, endoscopies and cancer treatment. Agreements vary much more here than for the overnight hospitals, so if you know where you'd have a procedure, check that hospital by name.

Agreements with Tasmanian hospitals, fund by fund

Here is every insurer's count. Restricted funds only accept people from a particular group, such as an employer or profession, and their families.

Health funds based in Tasmania

St Lukes Health is a not-for-profit mutual based in Launceston that also sells cover under the Astute Simplicity Health brand. It's open to anyone in any state. In 2024–25 it drew 0.2% of the Ombudsman's complaints about insurers on a 0.6% market share, and paid 84.8% of its premiums back as benefits against an industry 84.5%. Ambulance isn't part of its open hospital policies in the product data, which matters less for Tasmanian residents than for members in other states.

HCi (Health Care Insurance) is a not-for-profit mutual based in Burnie. It's also open to anyone, with a 0.1% market share in 2024–25, and its open hospital policies on 1 September 2026 were Silver Plus, Bronze Plus and Basic Plus. At 1 October 2026 St Lukes had agreements with 7 of Tasmania's 7 private hospitals and HCi with 6.

Being based in Tasmania doesn't make a fund cheaper or better there: every fund must charge the same premium for the same policy to everyone in the state, and every fund with an agreement pays the agreed rate. Compare the policy, not the postcode of the head office.

What the same policy costs in Tasmania

We don't publish premiums, because funds change them every 1 April. But the Government's data lets us compare the same policy across states. Tasmanian premiums sit in the middle: for the same singles hospital policy, the Tasmanian price was a median 3.5% below Victoria's and 3.1% below Queensland's, about level with NSW, 3.0% above South Australia's, and well above WA's and the Northern Territory's.

For current prices, search privatehealth.gov.au and choose Tasmania as where you live: it lists every fund's Tasmanian policies with their premiums and information statements.

Ambulance cover in Tasmania

Tasmania waives ambulance costs for its residents in most cases, so most Tasmanians don't need ambulance cover for emergencies at home. The exceptions include motor vehicle, workplace and public liability incidents, where another insurer is expected to pay.

Interstate is patchier. The Tasmanian Government pays for some interstate ambulance services under reciprocal agreements with Victoria, NSW, the ACT, WA and the NT, but says there is no agreement with South Australia or Queensland, where you'd be billed. If you travel to those states often, a hospital policy that includes ambulance, or ambulance-only cover, fills the gap. Our guide to ambulance cover by state has each state's rules and fees.

The surcharge, the rebate and Lifetime Health Cover in Tasmania

These are national rules, so they apply in Tasmania exactly as elsewhere. If your income for surcharge purposes is above $105,000 as a single or $210,000 as a family in 2026–27 and you don't hold hospital cover, the ATO adds a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of your income. Our Medicare Levy Surcharge calculator works out yours.

The government rebate reduces your premium by up to 24.118% (under 65, base tier, from 1 July 2026), and our private health insurance rebate calculator works out yours. Lifetime Health Cover loading adds 2% a year to your hospital premium if you first take hospital cover after the 1 July following your 31st birthday.

How to compare health insurance in Tasmania

The tier rules, waits and community rating are the same across Australia, so the comparison comes down to hospitals, the policy's cover and the Tasmanian price.

• Decide the hospital clinical categories you need, which set the tier: Basic, Bronze, Silver or Gold.
• Check that the hospitals you'd use, including any day hospital, have an agreement with the fund.
• Check whether you need ambulance in the policy: probably not for emergencies in Tasmania, but possibly for travel to South Australia or Queensland.
• Compare the Tasmanian premiums for equivalent policies on privatehealth.gov.au, after the rebate.
• If you're switching, keep the break short and get a clearance certificate so your served waits carry across.