There’s no one health insurance policy that’s best for young couples, with each couple’s needs being different. For example, basic or bronze hospital cover might be better for young couples that are healthy and unlikely to go to hospital for anything other than an unexpected accident. These policies give some cover while helping avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) for higher earners.

Alternatively, for couples planning to start a family, cover for pregnancy and birth-related services is found on gold policies or occasionally silver plus.

And don’t forget extras! These don’t have set tiers like hospital cover, so each policy might have different inclusions. If you’re both into sports or keeping a healthy set of pearly whites, you might be interested in an extras policy that covers things such as physiotherapy, acupuncture and dental check-ups.

The key is to shop around and compare policies to find one that suits your lifestyles, budget and plans. It’s not a one-size-fits-all deal, so take the time to figure out what’s important for you and your partner.

No, your eligibility for couples cover doesn’t depend on whether or not you’re married; most policies treat two adults living together as partners.

And if you’re in an LDR (long-distance relationship) – whether it’s for work, study, family commitments or even health treatment – you may still be able to hold a couples policy together, as long as you are both living in Australia.

To avoid the MLS, you’ll need couples hospital cover with an excess of no more than $1,500. With this cover, even if you earn over the MLS income threshold, you’ll be exempt.

For the 2026–27 financial year, couples with a combined income of over $210,000 need to pay the MLS unless they have appropriate hospital cover. Your tier of hospital cover doesn’t matter, just your chosen excess.

You can use our handy MLS calculator to figure out whether taking out private hospital cover could help you and your partner avoid the MLS.

Couples LHC loading – the amount they’ll pay on top of their couples health insurance – is the average of their individual loadings. So, say you have a loading of 2% while your partner’s is 6% then the average is 4%.

You might have an LHC loading if you didn’t get hospital cover before the start of the next financial year (1 July) after your 31st birthday. Your LHC loading increases by 2% for each year beyond this that you don’t have hospital cover, all the way to a maximum of 70%. That’s why couples young and old alike may want to get covered sooner rather than later.

If you’re only after extras cover, this kind of cover won’t stop you from getting an LHC loading. However, LHC loadings aren’t applied to extras policies either, so you won’t need to worry about your extras premium going up because of this.

Divorced couples can share a policy, but it will ultimately come down to what their insurer decides – as each has its own definition of a couple for health insurance, with some including divorced couples and others not. You can read the policy documents to check or speak with the insurer. There may also be tax implications.

You can’t add dependents to a couples health insurance policy without changing it to a family policy. Your insurer might have a family version of your existing policy you can move to. Otherwise, you can look at different family health insurance policies. This can be a good idea since your health needs as a family might be different to what they were when it was just the two of you.

Once you’re on a family policy, you can then continue to add dependents and children to your cover if you’re looking to expand your family further.

Health insurers can’t legally refuse to insure you or your partner if one or both of you have a pre-existing condition. However, pre-existing conditions usually mean a waiting period before you start claiming (unless you’ve already served that waiting period with another insurer).

For hospital cover, you won’t have to serve more than a 12-month waiting period before you can claim for hospital treatment. For extras cover, your insurer can set any length of waiting period and pre-existing conditions aren’t a factor.

If you’re taking out a new policy with your partner and one of you has a pre-existing condition, it’s usually only that person who would have to wait out the pre-existing waiting period before they can claim, rather than both of you. It really all depends on the policy, so don’t be afraid to speak with your insurer or go through your policy documents.