The short answer
Health insurance premiums in New Zealand rise with age more sharply than any other cover. A young adult on a base hospital plan is usually paying a modest monthly amount; the same plan in your late 60s can cost several times that. The two settings that change your price most are the excess and whether you add everyday/extras modules.
Because health cover is annually renewable rather than locked in, the premium you are quoted is a starting point that will move every year — which makes the excess decision compound.
Last reviewed 2026-07-30
The shape of the cost
The excess decision
This is the most under-used adjustment in New Zealand health insurance. Moving from a $250 excess to $2,000 or $4,000 can cut a premium substantially, every year, for as long as you hold the policy.
The logic is worth stating plainly. Insurance is for the loss you cannot absorb. If a $2,000 bill would be unpleasant but survivable, paying a higher premium every month for forty years to avoid it is a bad trade. What you genuinely need protection against is the $60,000 surgery and the non-funded cancer drug — and a high excess does not touch either of those.
Insure the loss you cannot absorb. Pay for the one you can.
Where the money actually is
Not all of a health policy is equally valuable per dollar:
- Surgical / hospital cover — the core. High value, this is the reason to hold the policy.
- Non-Pharmac drug benefit — often $300,000–$500,000 on better plans. For certain diagnoses this is the single most valuable line in the document, and it is the part most likely to be missing from a cheap plan.
- Specialist and diagnostics — high value, because it is what turns a six-month wait into a three-week one.
- Everyday / extras (dental, optical, GP) — low value for most households. You are largely pre-paying predictable costs and giving the insurer a margin on them. Worth running the numbers on your own last two years of spending before adding it.
Why "just get it later" is more expensive here than anywhere
On life cover, waiting costs money. On health cover, waiting costs coverage. Every year that passes adds medical history, and pre-existing conditions get excluded — sometimes permanently, in the case of cardiovascular, cancer, back, hip and knee conditions with some insurers.
The cruel arithmetic: the year you finally decide you want health insurance is usually the year something has started to worry you, which is the year that thing becomes uninsurable. More on pre-existing conditions →
What to do about rising premiums instead of cancelling
- Raise the excess before you touch anything else.
- Drop the extras module, keep the hospital and drug cover.
- Ask about lower-cost plan variants with the same insurer — switching plans internally often preserves your existing cover for conditions that developed while you were insured, where switching insurers does not.
- Only consider changing insurer with someone checking, in writing, what cover you lose in the move.
Common follow-up questions
Why does health insurance get so expensive after 60?
Because claims genuinely do. Health cover is annually renewable and priced to the risk of the age band you are in, and the likelihood of surgery, diagnostics and specialist care climbs sharply. Some insurers smooth this more than others, which is one of the few areas where the choice of insurer at 40 has consequences at 70.
Is it cheaper through my employer?
Group schemes are frequently better value and sometimes come with reduced or waived underwriting, which can be very valuable if you have any medical history. The question to ask before relying on it is what happens when you leave — whether you can convert to a personal policy on the same terms, or whether you get underwritten fresh.
Does health insurance cover cancer treatment in New Zealand?
Hospital plans generally cover surgical treatment, and better plans include a substantial benefit for cancer drugs that Pharmac does not fund — which is the part that matters most, because the public system funds a narrower list of modern cancer medicines than many comparable countries. Cover for a cancer that was pre-existing when you took the policy is a different question, and usually excluded.
Keep reading
This page is general information about how insurance works in New Zealand. It is not regulated financial advice and it does not take your situation into account. For advice about your own cover, talk to a licensed financial adviser.