Health Insurance Excess Optimiser NZ

This calculator helps you decide whether a higher health insurance excess will actually save you money in New Zealand, by weighing the lower premium against the extra excess you would pay when you claim. Insurers offer a choice of excess, the amount you pay toward a claim before they cover the rest, and a higher excess buys a lower premium because you are shouldering more of the cost yourself. The trade-off hinges entirely on how often you claim. The premium saving from a higher excess is certain, banked every year whether you claim or not, while the larger excess only bites on the occasions you actually make a claim. So for someone who rarely claims, a high excess can be a clear win, while a frequent claimer may be better with a low excess. You enter the premium and excess for a low-excess option and a high-excess option, plus the number of claims you expect in a typical year, and the calculator works out the expected total cost of each, premium plus the likely excess cost, and tells you which is cheaper. Use it to choose the excess that minimises your expected yearly cost, and remember the right answer changes if your health or claim frequency changes. This is a guide only, not financial advice.

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The high excess is about $25 cheaper a year
expected total cost: premium plus likely excess
Low excess cost$2,125
High excess cost$2,100

Expected cost is the premium plus the excess times how often you claim. Rare claimers favour a high excess; frequent claimers a low one. A guide only, not advice.

How it works

For each option, the expected total cost is the premium plus the excess multiplied by the number of claims you expect in a year. The calculator compares the two expected costs and reports which is lower and by how much. A higher expected claim frequency pushes the result toward the lower excess.

Worked example

A low-excess plan costs 2,000 dollars with a 250 dollar excess; a high-excess plan costs 1,600 dollars with a 1,000 dollar excess. Expecting half a claim a year, the low option is about 2,125 dollars and the high option about 2,100 dollars, so the higher excess is marginally cheaper.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a health insurance excess?

An excess is the amount you pay toward a claim before the insurer pays the rest. Choosing a higher excess lowers your premium, because you are taking on more of the cost yourself, which suits people who claim infrequently.

Does a higher excess save money?

It depends how often you claim. The premium saving is certain each year, while the higher excess only costs you when you actually claim. If you rarely claim, the premium saving usually outweighs the occasional larger excess.

How do I choose an excess?

Estimate how often you expect to claim in a year, then compare the expected total cost, premium plus likely excess, at each option. This tool does that comparison so you can pick the excess with the lower expected cost.