Why This Guide Exists
UniMed is less widely recognised than the largest health insurance brands in New Zealand, which tells you nothing either way about the cover itself. This guide sets out what UniMed publishes about its own plans, with sources, so you can weigh it on the same basis as anyone else you are considering. We do not rank insurers and there is no verdict at the end.
UniMed's Price Positioning
We are not going to rank these insurers on price. No New Zealand health insurer publishes a full premium schedule, so nobody can build a like-for-like table, and any figure we invented would be a guess. What we can say is what each plan is built to do, and let an adviser price your actual situation:
- UniMed: a not-for-profit mutual society. UniMed states that SmartCare+ includes its highest level of cover for non-Pharmac subsidised drugs, and that SmartCare is a lower-cost alternative to SmartCare+
- Partners Life: Private Medical Cover, arranged through an adviser alongside Mortgage and Income Cover
- AIA: Private Health or a cancer-only Cancer Care plan, with the optional AIA Vitality programme
- Southern Cross: publishes that more than 951,000 New Zealanders were with it as at 30 June 2025, with Affiliated Providers and direct claim payment
- nib: Everyday and Hospital sold separately or together, with an excess you choose
Two of the five publish a starting price for one particular plan, each on its own stated basis. nib state their Everyday plans start from around $15 a week and Hospital plans from about $20 a week — nib's basis is as at July 2025, including a 2% direct debit discount, for a 25-year-old male non-smoker with a $250 annual excess on Hospital cover. UniMed state their Health Positive plan provides up to $10,000 of benefits a year from $5.75 a week — UniMed's basis is a member aged 39 or under on the Health Positive 50% plan.
Those two figures are not comparable with each other: different products, different bases, different people. We reproduce them because each insurer published them, not as a comparison.
Mental Health Cover
UniMed includes mental health cover in several of its plans. On Hospital Select, psychiatric consultations sit in an optional add-on module; UniCare Advantage lists psychiatric consultations among covered treatments; and UniMed's SmartStay plan carries a stated mental health benefit of $1,000 per member per policy year, with a further $1,000 available through the Specialist module. UniMed publishes these at unimed.co.nz (retrieved 11 September 2026).
UniMed is not alone in this. nib's plans also cover consultations with a psychiatrist or psychologist, subject to a stated limit and waiting period. What UniMed's mental health cover typically involves:
- Psychiatric and psychologist consultations, subject to the limits stated in the plan document
- Cover levels differ by plan, so check the benefit maximum on the specific plan you are quoted
If mental health cover matters to you, the thing to compare is the benefit maximum, any session limit and the waiting period on the specific plan you are quoted — from every insurer you are considering, not just this one.
Claims Processing and Customer Service
UniMed operates an online member portal and publishes its claims process at unimed.co.nz. We do not publish claims turnaround figures for any insurer, because none of them publish audited ones — ask UniMed directly what their current average is, and ask the same question of anyone you are comparing them with. It is a fair question to put to any insurer before you buy.
Policy Wording
UniMed publishes its plan documents, terms and conditions, and its lists of approved and unapproved healthcare services at unimed.co.nz. Read the plan document for the specific plan you are quoted rather than relying on any summary, ours included.
For complex chronic conditions requiring frequent specialist management, read each insurer's wording on repeat specialist consultations closely — that is where plans differ most.
Add-Ons and Flexibility
UniMed's plans are structured with a base plan and optional modules. On Hospital Select, for example, UniMed lists add-on modules covering specialist and GP care, prescriptions and non-Pharmac funded medicines, psychiatric consultations, dental and vision, and a range of allied health services. Health Positive works differently again, reimbursing 50% or 80% of eligible everyday costs up to $10,000 a year. Which modules you need is the conversation to have with an adviser.
What UniMed Publishes About Itself
UniMed describes itself as a not-for-profit health insurer and a mutual society, established in 1979, which exists for its members rather than shareholders. It states that more than 500 New Zealand businesses use it for workplace cover.
Two of its plans carry claims UniMed makes on its own site: SmartStay is described as the only New Zealand health insurance product designed specifically for people on temporary work and visitor visas who are not eligible for publicly funded healthcare, and KidSmart as the only New Zealand health insurance plan designed specifically for children, where guardians can insure dependants without holding cover themselves. UniMed also offers ParentStay, built for applicants for the Parent Boost Visitor Visa, which is available only through a financial adviser.
The Accuro brand merged into UniMed, so material you find under the Accuro name generally refers to the same insurer.
Where This Leaves You
We do not rank insurers and we do not publish a verdict on UniMed or anyone else. What we would say is that UniMed is smaller than the brands most New Zealanders can name, and being less well known is not evidence either way about the cover.
The useful exercise is to get quoted on identical cover from UniMed and from the others you are considering, read the plan document for each quoted plan, and compare the pre-existing condition definition, the non-Pharmac drug limit and the annual maximums. Those three things will tell you more than any review will.
Sources
All UniMed facts above are from unimed.co.nz, retrieved 11 September 2026: the health plans pages, the Health Positive, UniCare Advantage, Hospital Select, SmartStay and ParentStay plan pages, and the published plan documents and 2026 terms and conditions linked from them.