What is Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading?
Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading is a government initiative to help ease the reliance on the public healthcare system and incentivise younger Australians to take out private health insurance earlier. If you take out Hospital cover when you’re older, you may need to pay a loading on top of your premium.
How does Lifetime Health Cover loading work?
The loading is calculated based on your age when you first take out Hospital cover. If you don’t have Hospital cover by 1 July following your 31st birthday and choose to take it out later in life, a loading of 2% will be added to your Hospital cover premium for each year you were aged over 30 without it. This loading will need to be paid on your Hospital cover premium for 10 continuous years before it’s removed.
For example:
Isabelle decided to wait until she’s 35 to take out Hospital cover. Her Lifetime Health Cover loading is calculated at 10%. Isabelle’s base hospital monthly premium is $100 before any government rebates or discounts are applied so it would now become $110 with the loading added.
If you choose to take out a combined Hospital and Extras product, the LHC loading will only be applied to the Hospital cover portion of your policy. If you’re on a couple or family cover, the loading is calculated as an average of the individual loadings of the two adults on the policy.
How do I find out my Lifetime Health Cover loading?
See the table below to find out what your LHC loading could be if you take out Hospital cover after 1 July following your 31st birthday - the longer you wait to take out Hospital cover, the more the premium will increase. The maximum LHC loading is 70%.
| Age | % LHC loading |
|---|---|
| 31 years old | 2% |
| 32 years old | 4% |
| 33 years old | 6% |
| 34 years old | 8% |
| 35 years old | 10% |
| 36 years old | 12% |
| 37 years old | 14% |
| 38 years old | 16% |
| 39 years old | 18% |
| 40 years old | 20% |
Don’t see your age? You can use Private Health’s Lifetime Health Cover calculator to determine your LHC base day and your anticipated loading.
Exemptions from LHC loading
Some individuals are exempt from LHC loading, including:
- People who were born on or before 1 July 1934.
- New migrants to Australia aged 31 or over who took out Hospital cover within 12 months of registering for full Medicare benefits.
- If you hold an appropriate level of Hospital cover 1 July following your 31st birthday.
For a full list of cases where you may be exempt from paying the LHC loading, visit PrivateHealth.
If you think you qualify for LHC exemption, you can apply through the LHC exemption form.
How can I avoid the Lifetime Health Cover loading?
The easiest way to avoid LHC loading is to take out Hospital cover before 1 July following your 31st birthday.
If you take out eligible Hospital cover@ before you’re 30 and you could also get a discount with some serious mileage. The young adult discount is available to 18-29 year olds and ranges from 10% to 2%, depending on your age when you first join.<
Learn more about Young Adult Discount and calculate your potential savings.
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Things you need to know
@ Eligible hospital cover includes residential hospital covers. Extras cover, Ambulance cover, Overseas Student Health Cover, Overseas Workers Health Cover, Overseas Visitors Health Cover and Corporate Elevate products are excluded.
< To be eligible you'll have to have your own policy or a policy with your partner, you can't be a dependent on your parents' policy. If you are on a couple or family policy, the discount is calculated by taking an average of the discount applied to the adults on the hospital cover. So, if one person has a 10% discount and their partner has no discount, or 0%, the discount applied is 5% overall.
While we hope you find this information helpful, please note that it is general in nature. It is not health advice and is not tailored to meet your individual health needs. You should always consult a trusted health professional before making decisions about your health care. While we have prepared the information carefully, we can’t guarantee that it is accurate, complete or up-to-date. And while we may mention goods or services provided by others, we aren’t specifically endorsing them and can’t accept responsibility for them. For these reasons we are unable to accept responsibility for any loss that may be sustained from acting on this information (subject to applicable consumer guarantees).