Understanding Waiting Periods When Switching Health Funds
Published November 7, 2025
Switching health insurance waiting periods can often seem confusing at first. Many people worry about losing cover or facing new waiting periods when changing their health insurer. However, if you understand how portability and waiting periods work, switching health insurance can actually be a simple and stress-free process.
Waiting periods in private health insurance
Waiting periods are the amount of time that you cannot claim certain benefits after taking out a new policy. It’s a mechanism to prevent people from only taking out insurance when they need it and cancelling immediately when they’ve finished treatment. Typical waiting periods include:
- 12 months for pre-existing conditions, pregnancy/obstetrics and major dental treatments.
- 2 months for general hospital cover and some extras.
- 6 months for optical and other specific extras.
Remember, when switching health funds, these waiting periods are subject to rules of portability, which means your cover can remain continuous.
Portability & How it protects You?
Portability is a Private Health Insurance Act 2007 regulation that ensures you can switch health funds without even losing your current level of cover.
What is portability, and how does it protect you?
Cover Transfer: Your new health fund must honour the waiting periods you have served with your fund.
- Protection for pre-existing conditions: Even if you have pre-existing conditions, your new fund can’t impose new waiting periods for equivalent cover.
- Grace period for lapsed policies: Most funds allow a grace period of 30-60 days for lapsed policies during which you can switch without losing portability benefits.
Ultimately, these rules support a more competitive market and allow consumers to switch providers without fearing that they will lose their cover.
Top benefits of portability for consumers
Portability rules make it easier for consumers to compare and switch health funds. This, in turn, helps support a more competitive market where insurers are motivated to deliver better value.
Without portability, persons with pre-existing conditions would hesitate to switch providers. The regulation ensures they can retain their cover without having to serve new waiting periods. It also encourages transparency because health funds must clearly outline any waiting periods and benefits in product disclosure statements.
What to watch out for when switching health funds
Grace periods for lapsed cover
Though most funds will give you a 30–60-day grace period for lapsed policies, some might require you to be up-to-date with payments to retain the portability benefits. Always check this with your new insurer before you make the switch.
Limits on extra upgrades
If you switch to a higher-level extras policy, the higher benefits might not kick in straight away. If, for example, your previous plan covered $800 for major dental and your new plan covers $1,100, you’ll still be limited to $800 during the first year.
Combined limits
Some funds will also impose combined limits on extras, meaning certain services share the same annual cap.
Conclusion
Switching health funds needn’t be daunting. With portability rules, you can switch easily to a new provider without losing cover or serving waiting periods again for the equivalent benefits.
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