Case study · Web · My own product
I was shopping for health insurance for two adults and the comparison sites gave me three results that weren’t even the same tier as each other. I had twelve policy documents from privatehealth.gov.au and no way to see them side by side — and nobody was asking the question I cared about: which funds are actually run for their members?
Decisions that mattered · 01
- Rank on ethics, not just price. Each not-for-profit fund gets four scores — member-owned status, complaints ratio (PHIO), benefit payout ratio (APRA) and ESG reputation — averaged, with value for money after the rebate as the tiebreaker. The method is written on the page so anyone can disagree with it.
- Primary sources only. Premiums come from the Private Health Insurance Schedule, payout ratios from APRA’s FY24-25 statistics and complaints from the Ombudsman’s State of the Health Funds report, pulled through data.gov.au’s CKAN API. The data changed the ranking: only one of the three not-for-profits actually pays out a higher share of premiums than the big for-profits.
- Five questions, not a filter wall. Cover type, state, household, hospital tier, monthly budget. The rebate tier selector and the Lifetime Health Cover calculator recalculate every price on the page, so a couple can see what a different income bracket does to the bill.
- Say what it isn’t. Every premium is labelled as before the government rebate. The site says it isn’t advice, links to the ATO rebate calculator, and sends people to privatehealth.gov.au for a live quote — it narrows the field, it doesn’t pick the policy.
- Free, no sign-up, no affiliate links. No fund pays for placement. Running costs are covered by a Stripe tip jar instead, so the ranking is not based on any kind of commission.
Outcome
Started as a personal research report in May 2026; live at iaso.guru on its own domain since September 2026.
Screens · 02
