Comparing Four NZ Health Insurance Policies (checked September 2026): Surgery, Hospital, Non-Subsidised Drugs, Overseas Treatment
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I rebuild this comparison every year, because the wordings keep changing.
Checking them this time, several things in last year’s version no longer matched. I have listed exactly which ones at the end.
So which of the four is best? My answer is that there is no best. The differences concentrate in six places: how much they pay for non-subsidised drugs, the conditions attached to overseas treatment, whether specialist consultations and diagnostics are part of the base cover, when the excess is triggered, whether there is a 20% co-payment, and which limits only exist if you pay extra for them.
The table below lays those out.
⚠️ Three things to read before the table
First, every cell is attributable. The four source documents and their effective dates are listed under the table, so you can check any of it yourself.
Second, anything marked “Optional extra” costs more. This is where the misunderstandings live. With the same insurer, whether or not you bought a particular Option changes your cover enormously.
Third, this compares product wordings. It is not advice for you. Which one suits you depends on your age, your health, your budget and what you care most about. Your own Policy Schedule is what governs your cover.
The core comparison
| Benefit | nib Ultimate Health | AIA Private Health | Partners Life Private Medical Cover | Southern Cross Wellbeing One / Two |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surgery (incl. hospital stay, anaesthetic, prostheses) | $600,000/year | No limit | $600,000/year | No limit (prostheses have their own sub-limit) |
| Non-surgical hospitalisation | $300,000/year | $500,000/year | $500,000/year | Must relate to surgery Psychiatric admission separately $3,500/year |
| Major diagnostics colonoscopy / gastroscopy / CT / MRI etc. | Shares the surgical / hospital limit Tests not on the Diagnostics Schedule paid at 80% | $200,000/year | $200,000/year | Imaging $60,000/year General tests $3,000/year Cardiac tests $5,000/year |
| Specialist consultations | Unlimited | $10,000/year Optional extra (Private Health Plus) | $10,000/year Optional extra (Specialist and Tests Option) | $5,000/year |
| Non-subsidised drugs medicines Pharmac does not fund the line that matters most in cancer treatment | Shares the surgical / hospital limit | $500,000/year Cancer only, shares a limit with other cancer care benefits | $25,000/year Rises to $600,000 (surgical) / $500,000 (non-surgical) with the Non-Subsidised Drugs Option | Chemotherapy $60,000/year of which non-funded chemotherapy drugs only $10,000 |
| Overseas treatment | $30,000 per treatment Includes travel and accommodation for you and one support person Only where the treatment is unavailable in New Zealand | Yes, several options Includes return airfares for two and interpreter costs | Paid at 75% of the equivalent New Zealand cost Includes transport for you and one support person Optional extra (Overseas Coverage Option) | $30,000/year Only where unavailable both publicly and privately in New Zealand |
| Excess and co-payment | From 24 November 2025some policies charge a 20% co-payment on specialists and diagnostics Tests on the Diagnostics Schedule are excluded; Ultimate Health Max is unaffected because of a guarantee in its wording | Choice of $0 / $250 / $500 / $750 / $1,000 / $2,000 / $4,000 / $10,000 Optional extras carry only a $0 or $250 excess | Separate $250 excess on specialists and diagnostics Resets 12 months after it was last charged | Excess applies to surgical benefits No excess on specialist consultations, imaging, general tests or cardiac tests |
| Maternity | High-risk pregnancy $2,000 per pregnancy Excludes caesarean and ectopic pregnancy | Obstetric care $2,000/year A further $1,500 per pregnancy after two years in force Not payable if already pregnant when cover started | Obstetric specialist consultations required by complications Covered to 90 days post-birth; normal pregnancy and birth excluded | $750/year Wellbeing Two only, after one year of continuous cover |
Sources, all current wordings archived in August 2026:
- nib — Ultimate Health policy wording, effective 24 November 2025
- AIA — AIA Health Private Health Umbrella policy wording, APH-UMB version 6, effective 17 April 2025
- Partners Life — Life Journey Plan Private Medical Cover, V01, effective 27 October 2025
- Southern Cross — Wellbeing One & Two policy document, effective 1 April 2026
The three things this table is really saying
1. The optional extras decide how far apart these policies actually are
With the same insurer, buying or not buying one Option changes the outcome completely.
The clearest example is Partners Life on non-subsidised drugs. The base cover is $25,000/year. Add the Non-Subsidised Drugs Option and it becomes $600,000. For cancer treatment that is the difference between “enough for a few months” and “not something you need to worry about”.
AIA’s specialist consultations and imaging work the same way. Those limits sit in Private Health Plus, not in the base Private Health Cover.
So when you are handed somebody’s comparison table, the first question to ask about any cell is: is this base cover, or does it cost extra?
2. “Covers overseas treatment” means four different things here
AIA and Partners Life: this can be treatment you choose to have overseas. Partners Life requires the Overseas Coverage Option and pays 75% of the equivalent New Zealand cost.
nib and Southern Cross: they pay only when the treatment cannot be done in New Zealand.
If your plan is “if I get seriously ill I’ll go home for treatment”, that distinction is the whole decision. Two of my clients were diagnosed with cancer this year and chose to be treated overseas, using exactly this kind of voluntary overseas benefit.
3. Wordings change, so last year’s table is not safe to use
Checking this year’s wordings against last year’s version, eight things no longer matched. The ones that matter most:
| Last year’s version | Current wording |
|---|---|
| nib overseas treatment “medical costs only, no airfares or accommodation” | Includes travel and accommodation for you and one support person, up to $30,000 per treatment |
| nib maternity $4,000 | High-risk pregnancy $2,000 per pregnancy |
| nib has no co-payment | From 24 November 2025 some policies carry a 20% co-payment on specialists and diagnostics |
| Partners Life non-subsidised drugs “share the surgical and hospital limit” | Base cover is $25,000/year; the Option is required to reach $600,000 |
| AIA specialist consultations and imaging listed as base cover | They are part of the Private Health Plus optional extra |
| Southern Cross “no overseas treatment” | $30,000/year, limited to treatment unavailable in New Zealand |
Which is why I keep saying: review your policy once a year. Not to switch insurers, but to confirm that the cover you think you have is still there.
So how should you choose?
This is the order I work in.
Start with what you are most afraid of. If it is being unable to afford the right drugs for cancer, the non-subsidised drugs row is the one that matters. If you want the option of going home for treatment, look at whether overseas cover is voluntary or only for what New Zealand cannot do.
Then look at your health. If you have a pre-existing condition, whether you can get covered at all matters far more than the size of a limit — and there are four routes to getting one covered.
Price comes last. Premiums can be tuned with the excess and the optional extras — here is how the excess works — and premiums have risen sharply for reasons worth understanding before you make a decision. If the budget is genuinely tight, cancer-only cover is a rational trade-off.
Want to know where your current policy sits on this table, and whether you actually bought the optional extras you think you did? Send it to me and I will check it against the wording.
Want to compare the four, or check your own policy? Get in touch with Cornerstone Insurance.
Phone: +64 211 280 727 Email: amy.tao@cornerstonefs.co.nz WeChat: Amytaoingrace