Compare NZ Health Insurance Providers
What each of the five main insurers actually sells, in their own published words, so you know what you are being quoted on.
The Five NZ Health Insurers
nib
Part of nib Group. Sells Everyday cover, Hospital cover, or both, with an excess you choose.
AIA
Offers Private Health and a separate Cancer Care plan, plus the AIA Vitality wellbeing programme.
UniMed
A not-for-profit mutual society, operating since 1979. The Accuro brand has now merged into UniMed. Range spans everyday care through to comprehensive hospital cover.
Partners Life
Life and health insurer selling through financial advisers rather than direct.
Southern Cross
Describes itself as a for-purpose Friendly Society founded in 1961, and publishes that more than 951,000 New Zealanders were with it as at 30 June 2025.
Each description is drawn from what that insurer publishes about itself on its own website, and carries the date we retrieved it. We do not rate or score insurers. How this service is funded is set out in our Terms.
What Actually Drives Your Premium
We do not build premium tables. Here is why, what two insurers do publish, and what moves the number.
No New Zealand health insurer publishes a full premium schedule, so no site can build a like-for-like price table. Any per-insurer table you see has been gathered from somewhere else, and it is almost never comparing the same plan, the same excess and the same person. Two insurers do publish a starting price for a particular plan, and we set both out below in their own words. Beyond that we would rather tell you what moves the price and let an adviser quote your actual situation.
Your age
The single largest factor. Premiums rise with age, and they keep rising after you join.
The excess you choose
A higher excess lowers the premium. nib publish this directly: a higher excess means a lower premium.
What the plan covers
Hospital and surgical only, everyday care only, or both. Adding non-Pharmac drug cover changes it again.
Who is on the policy
Yourself, you and a partner, or a whole family. Some plans cover children without the parent being insured.
Your medical history
Existing conditions may be excluded, loaded, or covered after a stand-down. This is why a real quote differs from any table.
Smoking and wellbeing programmes
Smoker status affects pricing, and some insurers discount for engagement with a wellbeing programme.
The two published starting prices
Two of the five publish a starting price on their own website, each for one particular plan and each on its own stated basis.
nib state that their Everyday plans start from around $15 a week and their Hospital plans from about $20 a week. nib’s own footnote is part of the figure: that is as at July 2025, includes a 2% direct debit discount, and is based on a 25-year-old male non-smoker with a $250 annual excess on Hospital cover.
UniMed state that their Health Positive plan provides up to $10,000 of benefits a year from $5.75 a week. UniMed’s own footnote is again part of the figure: that is the weekly premium for a member aged 39 or under on the Health Positive 50% plan.
Those two figures are not comparable with each other. They are different products for different purposes — nib’s are Everyday and Hospital plans, UniMed’s Health Positive is an everyday-costs plan that excludes major surgery — quoted on different bases for different people. We reproduce them because each insurer published them, not as a price comparison and not as what you would pay. Southern Cross, AIA and Partners Life do not publish a starting price, and we are not going to estimate one on their behalf.
Because pricing depends on all of the above, the only figure worth having is a quote for you. That is free and there is no obligation.
What To Compare, And Why
We used to show a tick-box grid here. We removed it, because a tick in a box cannot tell you the limit, the stand-down or the exclusion attached to it, and a dash implies an absence we cannot evidence. These are the questions worth asking instead.
Non-Pharmac drug cover, and how much
This is where the biggest bills land. Cancer treatment using drugs Pharmac does not fund can run to tens of thousands a month. Ask for the annual limit in dollars, not whether it is "included".
Surgical and hospitalisation limits
Some plans state an annual dollar limit, some state unlimited for certain benefits. AIA, for example, publishes hospitalisation at $500,000 per policy year on its Private Health plan and unlimited inpatient treatment costs.
Everyday cover, or hospital only
GP, dental, optical and physio are usually a separate module or a different plan, not part of hospital cover. nib describe these as two distinct types of cover.
Specialists and diagnostics
Whether you need a referral, and whether imaging is covered before a surgical claim exists, varies a lot between plans.
Mental health
Ask what is actually payable and under what conditions. AIA publish a mental health support benefit of $2,500 per policy year on both their health plans.
Stand-downs and pre-existing conditions
The single biggest cause of declined claims. Ask how your own history will be treated before you apply, not after.
Prevention and wellbeing benefits
Some insurers pay towards screening and prevention. UniMed publish flu vaccine reimbursement up to $45 a person and free hearing checks with Bloom, among other member offers.
How premiums change as you age
Ask what the premium looks like at 60 and 70, not just today. This is the question most people wish they had asked.
Benefit figures named above are published by that insurer on its own website and were checked on 11 September 2026. Limits change and policy wordings govern, so confirm against the current document before you decide.
Provider Profiles
In each insurer's own published words. We do not rate or score insurers.
UniMed
Accuro is now UniMedThe Accuro brand has merged into UniMed, and everything has moved to the UniMed website. If you hold a plan originally issued by Accuro, such as SmartCare, SmartCare+, StaffCare, StaffCare+ or SmartStay, the terms are in your Health Plan document and your member portal is still the UniMed one.
UniMed describes itself as a not-for-profit mutual society, operating since 1979, and publishes a range spanning everyday care through to comprehensive hospital cover: Health Positive for prevention and everyday costs, UniCare Advantage as all-in-one cover paying up to 80% of treatment costs within benefit limits, Hospital Select for comprehensive surgical cover, and SmartCare+ and SmartCare for their highest level of cover for non-Pharmac subsidised drugs.
Three plans are built for situations the rest of the market largely does not serve. UniMed describe SmartStay as the only New Zealand health insurance for visitors or workers on short-term visas who are not eligible for publicly funded healthcare, ParentStay for people applying for the Parent Boost Visitor Visa, and KidSmart as the only New Zealand plan designed for children, letting guardians insure dependants without taking out cover themselves. If any of those describe you, it is worth asking about by name.
Structure
Not-for-profit mutual
Visitor cover
SmartStay
Parent Boost visa
ParentStay
Children only
KidSmart
Source: unimed.co.nz/health-plans and unimed.co.nz/members, 11 September 2026.
nib New Zealand
Part of nib Group. nib publish that they specialise in health insurance and protect the health of over 1.4 million people across New Zealand and Australia.
They split cover into two types: Everyday, for day-to-day costs like dentist, GP and physio, and Hospital, for surgery, cancer treatment, specialist consultations and diagnostic investigations. You can pick an excess level on plans with Hospital cover, and nib state plainly that a higher excess means a lower premium. Non-Pharmac drug cover can be added. They also offer Wellness Coaches as one-on-one support.
Source: nib.co.nz/health-insurance, 11 September 2026.
AIA New Zealand
AIA sell two health options: Private Health, covering a wide range of medical conditions including surgery, specialist consultations and diagnostic imaging, and Cancer Care, which covers cancer-related treatment only. Private Health can be upgraded to Private Health Plus for additional diagnostics and specialist consultations.
Published benefit levels include hospitalisation up to $500,000 per policy year, major diagnostic imaging and tests up to $200,000 per policy year, radiotherapy up to $500,000 per policy year, and a mental health support benefit of $2,500 per policy year. AIA Vitality, their wellbeing programme, can be added for $13.50 a month for those aged 16 and over and carries a premium discount. AIA state they paid over $177 million in health insurance claims in 2025.
Source: aia.co.nz health insurance, 11 September 2026. Summary only; policy wording governs.
Southern Cross Health Society
New Zealand's largest health insurer, structured as a not-for-profit friendly society, with a plan range running from entry-level surgical cover up to comprehensive. We have not reproduced benefit figures here because we were not able to retrieve their plan pages directly on 11 September 2026, and we would rather link you to the source than quote something we have not read.
See southerncross.co.nz for current plans and wordings.
Partners Life
A life and health insurer that distributes through financial advisers rather than selling direct, so a Partners Life quote generally comes via an adviser. As above, we have not reproduced benefit figures we could not retrieve from their own site on 11 September 2026.
See partnerslife.co.nz for current products and wordings.
What Private Treatment Costs
Two insurers publish their own claims data. These are their figures, not ours.
Published by AIA
Source: AIA Health Claims Data, 30 April 2026, published at aia.co.nz. AIA note these costs are illustrative only and that all claims are assessed on individual circumstances and policy terms.
Published by nib
Source: nib, published at nib.co.nz. nib state these are average claim statistics for Everyday and GP minor surgery claims during 2020, and for Outpatient and Hospital claims from October 2020 to February 2021, and that they do not represent what would be paid on any particular policy.
The two sets are not directly comparable. They were gathered in different years using different methods, which is exactly why we have kept them apart rather than merging them into one table.
Let an Adviser Quote Your Situation
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BestHealthInsurance.co.nz is operated by Cover4You Group and is an independent referral service. We are not a Financial Advice Provider. We do not compare policies for you, we do not recommend an insurer, and we do not give financial advice. We pass your details to a licensed New Zealand Financial Advice Provider we have vetted, and they give any advice. We do not build premium comparison tables, because no NZ health insurer publishes a full premium schedule. Where an insurer publishes a starting price for one of its own plans, we reproduce it with that insurer's stated basis and nothing added. Any premium you are quoted depends on your age, plan, excess and medical history. See full disclaimer.