Surgical waiting periods — NZ health insurance

A surgical waiting period is the minimum time you must hold the policy before the insurer will fund a non-acute (planned) surgery. Acute / accident-related surgery is usually covered immediately (and ACC pays for accident-caused costs regardless of your insurer).

We have not found a general waiting period of this kind in the policy documents we hold (a few are short brochures rather than full wordings). That is not the same as no wait: individual benefits can have their own (several Southern Cross and Accuro benefits start only after 3 years of continuous cover), and pre-existing conditions may be excluded. Check the benefit in each plan's wording.