The Australian Government Department of Health works towards achieving better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations. It does this by developing and delivering policies and programs and advising the Government on health, aged care and sport. 

The Medical Costs Finder, launched in 2019, is one such program. It is a website designed to educate consumers about costs of common medical services, how to avoid bill-shock from unexpected out‑of-pocket medical expenses, and the impact of private health insurance and Medicare contributions on what they end up paying for these services.

Over the last 12 months, the Department has developed additional functionality which will allow individual medical specialists to publish their indicative estimate fees and private health insurer gap arrangements for a selected number of high-volume services they provide. Importantly, this cost information is not a quote, rather indicative fees to provide consumers with a better understanding of what contributes to out of-pocket costs and the value the right private health insurance cover for their needs can provide.