HCF Health Insurance

Had several issues while moving from BUPA to HCF with great promises. Had to call many times to resolve. this was with regards to coverage we had in BUPA was not properly transferred to HCF. Now the latest is our dentist has been removed from HCF panel for no reason even though the dentist agreed to their fee structure. JC Dental Como has been… Read more

our dentist for a long time. The reason was HCF decided to reduce the number of dentists in the panel in that area. Not happy at all.

What the point in private health if you have to use a hospital for the surgery required. My daughter need surgery for endometriosis and wen to see a specialist but HCF will not provide a claim as its not through a hospital. This was a referral for our GP but that's not good enough. Will be moving company's. And thos was a specific insurance we took out because of my daughters condition Show details

I switched from Bupa to HCF hoping for a better experience, but honestly, I regret it. I had similar issues with Bupa, and unfortunately, HCF’s claims process has been just as frustrating. Claiming with HCF is unnecessarily time-consuming. You have to fill out a form, email it to them, and then wait, only to find out that they apparently haven’t… Read more

received your claim. You then have to contact them through online chat or email just to follow up. It’s exhausting having to chase an insurance company to get your own claims processed.

I’ve already experienced this issue with 3–4 of my own claims, and now my husband is facing the same problem. Even after sending the documents to the email address provided on HCF’s website and receiving an email response, their customer service representative says they cannot find the claim. Instead of investigating the issue properly and providing a solution, they keep asking the same questions.

What frustrates me the most is that they don’t seem to take these repeated issues seriously. We pay our premiums expecting a reasonable level of service, but even making a simple claim becomes a stressful and time-consuming task.

In this day and age, why should customers have to fill out forms, email documents, chase up claims through online chat, and repeatedly explain the same problem? A simple and reliable online claiming system would make such a difference.

I shouldn’t have to spend so much of my time following up just to claim what I’m entitled to under my policy.

I would not recommend HCF Overseas Visitors Health Cover based on my experience. If you’re considering it, please look carefully into the claims process before signing up. Having insurance is one thing; getting the support you need when making a claim is another.

HCF seriously needs to improve its claims process and take customer complaints more seriously

Terrible service just started with them. They don’t return calls when they say they willl. They didn’t cover a $29 dentist bill that I paid out of pocket no explanation had to RT ing several times calls never returned when they were suppose to I went back to HBF paying little bit more but least they get things done Show details

Rejoined in 2025 and had one issue after another. Would certainly not recommend this company. Their advertising is a farce and they have a complete lack of integrity. Its why they were given the Choice Shonky's award. Show details

I switched from Medibank to HCF a few months ago with Top Extras for my entire family including my under 30 yrs adult children. I was promised switching to HCF our cover would be the same if not better. It has been the worse decision I ever made.… Read more

HCF top extras is nowhere near or even close to Medibank. Our out of pocket expenses is double and previous covers we always had are bare minimal or non existent (read the very fine print)We will be going back to Medibank for the extra monthly amount. Don’t trust the comparison companies that say they can save you money by offering the equal or better cover, they’re just after their commission at the end of the day.

We have been with hcf for over 30 years absolutely no regrets. Not only is our package the cheapest health insurance compared to others but the benefits have been so good. We have a bronze hospital with extras. Over the years they have paid up quickly for my husband's hospital procedures with no problem. We have had a cash rebate some years ago… Read more

paid to members. We had a free heartand diabetes health check by Victor Chang. AFter that there was a followup email with our gps for past blood test resutls. As my blood pressure and cholesterol levels showed up higher than normal HCF advised me to participate in their COACH program- a 4-6 week once a month phone consult with a nurse/dietician to help manage my health/medications/diet. Had my first phone consult with a nurse, for over 80 minutes. She was so patient and thorough going over my medical history/test results/medications etc, It cleared up misconceptions and hesitations that I had. REally thankful as it helped me to make some clear decisions. This COACH program is free for members and I would highly recommend members to take it up. Besides some of the above benefits there are the other usual free dental checks/fillings, optomerist care,etc. Definitely no regrets staying with HCF and even when costs go up each year they have not been extreme. As we grow older the risks of more health issues overweith the cost of a health cover

I used to work for a private hospital in admin and many of our patients were long term. Other health funds would notify us that their hospital rebates were stopping when the member reached the maximum days of cover. For most patients this resulted in their discharge. But not HCF. We would contact HCF about extending cover and they'd ask for a… Read more

report so they could determine progress and then they'd usually approve an extension beyond the maximum days of coverage. This is why I have had them as my health fund for over 30 years, because they cared about the members. Everyone in our family has spent time in hospital for some reason, visited the dentist multiple times and I have life insurance with them. They are helpful and supportive with every communication. I pay the same to insure each member of my family as I do for each car we own. They have their own dental and eye centres where you can get great service and good value for money. I'm not switching, I signed up as a single and now we're a family of 4 adults and I value the way HCF does business.

Fantastic experience with Heet! We recently had to contact HCF regarding our policies and were lucky enough to speak with Heet. He was incredibly helpful, patient, and sorted everything out for us in no time. It’s great to see a health fund that employs such high-quality staff who actually care about their members. Highly recommend! Show details

I signed up with HCF two weeks ago and specifically chose to speak with an agent to ensure everything was set up correctly and to avoid any issues or mistakes. The agent successfully created our cover, but when I tried to register through the app using the details provided in the confirmation email, I was told that my details were incorrect. I… Read more

contacted customer service via chat and was informed that my date of birth had been entered incorrectly during the initial setup. I was advised to email a copy of my ID to have this corrected, which I did immediately. However, it has now been two weeks, and I still haven’t received any response or update!

I’ve also tried contacting the agent who signed me up, but unfortunately, I’ve had no luck getting any assistance.

This has been an incredibly frustrating experience, especially considering that this is our first time with HCF. We chose to deal directly with an agent to avoid exactly these kinds of problems, yet we’re now left unable to log in to the app at all, with no resolution in sight.

I expected a much better experience from HCF. It’s disappointing that a simple registration issue has taken two weeks to resolve, with no communication or follow-up. I hope HCF takes this matter seriously and resolves it as soon as possible.

I've recently had two claims rejected by HCF. The first was a dental filling that HCF claimed was major dental work. The dentist confirmed that what she did was not major dental work, however HCF policy does not match up to what dentists say is major dental work. The second one was an assistant surgeons invoice after major surgery in hospital. … Read more

I did receive a small amount for the main surgeons invoice. However when queried why I did not get any refund for the assistant surgeon, they said it was because Medicare had already refunded me 75% of the Medicare schedule fee. The actual invoice far exceeded the Medicare fee.

Given how much money they spend on advertising claiming they give more back to customers this is hypocrisy. I have been with HCF for many years seldom making a claim until recently. I wish I had changed health funds earlier.

Don’t believe their ad saying they give more back to their customers THEY DON’T. HCF gave me $700 in extras which included dental cleaning. BUPA for $8 a month more give me $650 minor dental ( not including dental cleaning ) and $650 MAJOR dental plus all the other stuff like optical. I recommend BUPA over HCF Show details

My experience with HCF has generally been that making claims and getting clear answers is far more complicated than it should be. A recent interaction was another example. I was trying to claim a benefit and was required to obtain additional documentation from another practitioner, despite already having a treating healthcare professional… Read more

involved who was familiar with my circumstances and directly involved in the treatment.

This potentially means paying for another appointment simply to obtain a letter confirming information that is already established within my care.

I understand that these sorts of requirements are common across the private health insurance industry. But that's part of my frustration. The fact that insurers commonly make members jump through these hoops doesn't necessarily make it reasonable or patient-focused.

From the member's perspective, it can feel as though the process is designed primarily around administrative requirements and controlling claims costs, rather than asking what is actually necessary to establish eligibility in a particular case.

The staff I've dealt with have generally been polite, and my criticism isn't directed at individual employees. It's the policies and the inflexibility around them that I find frustrating.

HCF promotes itself around uncommon care. I think genuinely putting that principle into practice would mean occasionally looking at these processes through the eyes of the patient and applying some common sense, rather than simply requiring members to jump through another hoop because that's how the system is structured.

After paying premiums for private health insurance, it shouldn't feel this difficult to access relatively straightforward benefits.

A catalogue of errors that ultimately destroyed our trust in HCF Our experience as new HCF members was incredibly disappointing and ultimately resulted in us cancelling our policy. From the outset there was one administrative error after another, from setting up our direct debit incorrectly, to losing documents we had already provided, applying… Read more

the wrong Lifetime Health Cover loading to our policy, and then increasing our premium and taking a substantially higher direct debit from our bank account without any prior notice.

We then had to contact our former health insurers ourselves to obtain replacement copies of clearance certificates that HCF had already received but could no longer locate.

I spent around four hours on the phone in one week trying to sort out HCF's errors. Once the replacement documents were provided and everything was finally recalculated correctly, it turned out our premium should actually have been lower.

What particularly concerned us was HCF increasing the direct debit without notification. Their own Direct Debit Customer Service Agreement states that when HCF varies the nominated debit amount, it will provide at least 30 days' notice. When I raised the fact that we received no notice, I was simply told it was "human error" and they had forgotten to send the letter.

The handling of the complaint was the final straw. I found the complaints representative dismissive and unnecessarily confrontational. Eventually I ended the call and said I would prefer to speak with someone who actually sounded as though they cared about resolving the complaint.

HCF subsequently offered us one month of free cover. We declined and cancelled the policy.

Mistakes happen, but this wasn't one isolated mistake. It was a catalogue of errors involving our policy, documents, premiums and direct debits, followed by a complaints experience that did nothing to restore our confidence.

Ultimately, we simply no longer trusted HCF to administer our health insurance or direct debits correctly, so we took our business elsewhere.

We have been with HCF over 2 months now. I just got a $513 dental bill, HCF only covered $186. I was $327 out of pocket. Pretty bad as we pay a premium of $528 a month. Changed funds !! Show details

Worst insurer ever I was charged for 4 months at $419 per month even after cancelling the policy and even though my new provider had requested for cancellation they fully ignored the email and kept charging me. I would highly recommend to stay away from this grubs as there are lot more health insurance provider who are a lot cheaper and better I am with NIB now which dropped down from HCF charging $419 to $185 with same cover Show details

Absolutely disgusted with customer service. I decided to switch to another fund where I'm getting the same cover for less. I got interrogated as to why I'm switching and wanted to get down to the fine details. Lady was just plain rude. It's none of anyone's business why I'm switching, and the more you interrogate me the more I'm convinced it's… Read more

the right choice. After many years of being with this health fund, I'm utterly, utterly disappointed. In a cost of living crisis, my expenses are my business - end of story. Find yourselves another health fund that values their members!

very disappointed in this fund. when i needed them they failed me. item 651 re-cementing a crown is not covered under major dental. how am i supposed to know that??? they was never any mention of "not covered items" when i signed up...not one word. in an emergency like losing a crown that i needed to get repaired soonest i had no idea my "major… Read more

dental" cover was in any way restricted. HCF you just lost another customer thru your outright deception

I have been with HCF more that 25 years, hospital cover is great, but Extras pharmacy benefits return is disgusting, i have made a claim for Monjaro pen the cost was 390.00 i got back 50.00, where other health fund covering almost 75-80% of the cost Show details

Hopeless is an understatement! They should spend more time looking after their members than those st^pid Advertisements on TV. I have moved back to my old Health Fund and after 3 months I get a notification that my premiums are going to be as if I have never held Private Health Insurance as HCF WON"T release a previous cover certificate. After a… Read more

phone call and no excuse why the delay or refusal, I was issued with a certificate after refusing the 24 - 48 hour period to generate one as I need pain assistance on my knees. I now have to wait another week for my new Health Fund to process this certificate which is ridiculous as they also informed me upon rejoining that "we take care of everything" which has turned out to be inaccurate. Not happy Jan!!!

HCF genuinely operates like they’re allergic to competence. I switched funds two weeks before my next payment, my new fund requested the clearance certificate that same day, and somehow HCF still managed to snatch the payment anyway. When I called, they didn’t even bother pretending — just a pile of excuses about being ‘busy’ and only getting… Read more

around to it today. If this is their idea of service, it’s no wonder people leave. I wouldn’t go back to HCF if they paid me. Dealing with them is a full‑time nightmare.

Absolutely hopeless, staffed by incompetent disinterested young employees. It took 5 calls and a complaint email to finally cancel my membership and receive a refund from premiums which had been paid in advance, then another angry call to get the Clearance Certificate issued. First call -after saying I want to cancel my insurance…. Umm ahhh do… Read more

you have any pre-existing conditions ? What ? yeah Tourette’s Second call- Just checking you have cancelled my insurance, I was told the turnaround would be 3-5 days… yeah well it’s not 5 days yet is it. Third call -day 5…can you confirm you have stopped future direct debits and have processed my refund and are issuing my clearance certificate. .. umm we are waiting for funds to clear… what do you mean, you took a DD payment 6 business days ago.. umm ahh yes the funds haven’t cleared yet. WTH? Can I speak with your supervisor please… on hold for 5 minutes… they are not available and you can’t speak to them directly but I can process a request for a call back which can take 24-72 hours… why can’t you just process a cancellation ? Complaint email sent. Fourth call… #*^%€£ !! Fifth call, you’ve processed the refund but Still haven’t issued my clearance certificate #*^%€£ !! How bloody hard is it ? The extras rebates weren’t that good either and premiums kept increasing. Your customer service and administrative delays are so appalling I’d hate to have to deal with your company to process a hospital admission. Hint: spend less on tv advertising and use the savings to hire and educate quality employees. Shame on management for letting this culture exist

I have hospital cover i have paid my excess for the year. I don't have cataracts cover as I didn't have it before. I understand hcf won't cover the cataract surgery. What I object to, is , they won't cover the hospital either. Ripped off big time! Show details

I had switched to another fund after 13 years with HCF but, after one of their consultants called me, I was prepared to switch back at a reduced premium. But I couldn't believe what happened next when I dialed in to accept the deal. Twice I was switched to another department which never answered. On both occasions, a recorded message asked me to… Read more

complete a customer satisfaction survey without having any customer support. So I gave up trying to call. It was taking too long on the phone. HCF was once a good choice but if they can't handle customer support for a member rejoining, I feel I may as well stay with the other fund whose premiums are $45 per month less for similar cover but not quite the same cover. In this instance, HCF shot itself in the foot and missed the chance to regain a customer.