Health & Family Do you have private health insurance?

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Observer, 5th Jun, 2016.

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  1. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    Hi all. What are your thoughts on having a private health insurance for households with total income below $180000. I get that everyone's situation is different. However, I still can't decide if we really need it at this stage of our life as we are a young couple and don't go to hospitals very often.

    Do you consider it to be one of the safeguards in your property investment journey for cases when you get sick and may have large unexpected expenses?

    I'm still not quite sure what the difference is between the medicare and private health insurance coverage (except for the waiting times). Is there anything substantial that private health insurance can cover without having to pay huge excess fees that medicare cannot cover?
     
  2. LifesGood

    LifesGood Well-Known Member

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    @Bran will have some comments on this!
     
  3. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

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    yes, as the nearest public hospital has killed to many people!!:eek:

    there is another lengthy thread in ths topic. any insurance is a lottery that you hope you dont need to win. comes down to personal preference, current health, family history, location, future planning, luck;)
     
  4. Bayview

    Bayview Well-Known Member

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    This annoys me, and sorry Bob; we often agree on most things, but this is a raw nerve with me - it is ACA sensationalist rubbish...

    When someone has a major car crash and is in a critical,condition; they all go to a Public Hospital with a trauma unit..

    The reason is because they have the best range of equipment and volume of staff on hand to handle it.

    The news loves to trot out stories of Public Hospitals giving wrong doses and folks sitting on beds in hallways for 15 hours etc, and it really piz.z.es me off because for 99% of the time they do a damn good job - but no-one ever hears that part of it.

    Accidents happen; these tasks are being performed by humans; they are not perfect 100% of the time; but geez they go close.

    Folks are sitting on beds in hallways for hours on end because there is no bed available. There are many reasons for why the bed is not available - one is not enough Staff....sometimes they simply cannot fill a shift for a nurse, and if you use Frankston Hospital as an example; their ER room is choc-full of patients most of the time with minor complaints which might be seen by a doctor; but the patients want to get bulk-billed rather than cop a $36 payment at the private practice...

    Then you have emergency Caesars, heart attacks, car accidents, Triple-A's, small kids...all these sorts of things trump anyone sitting in the Triage lounge with a sore thumb or even a cut with an angle grinder (unless it is life-threatening) and will shunt everyone back to the end of the line.

    It only takes a handful of nurses to call in sick at the last minute for various reasons - in a Hospital like Frankston this could be over a dozen each day - and there you have a lot of beds sitting vacant until they can drum up someone to come into work - if they can find anyone at the last minute..

    My wife's phone gets texts every-single-day asking for nurses to fill shifts in Theater (this is her area); and that is just the Theater...times this by the whole Hospital.

    She actually went in there at the last minute yesterday (Sunday) to do a 6.30pm -1.30am shift in Theater...got the call at 3.45pm.

    Personally having worked in the Frankston Public Hospital ICU for 3 years, and my wife is a Theater nurse with over 25 years experience in both Private and Public (currently doing both) hospitals; you can take it from both of us that it is often just as good care in a Public as a Private Hospital...sometimes better because Privates are often under-staffed to save dollars, and there are next to no doctors in the Hospital after the operating lists have finished for the day....maybe a Registrar or two.

    Yes; in certain scenarios getting access to the best surgeon and being cared for in a Private Hospital is preferable; but even if you pick the best surgeon (which is what Private Health insurance can allow you to do) he/she will still possibly need to operate on you at a Public Hospital because of their equipment etc if the illness dictates that.

    Rant over.
     
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  5. Bran

    Bran Well-Known Member

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    Yes, but our household income is higher than this. I have conveyed my thoughts elsewhere and won't again - it's all searchable.
     
  6. Joynz

    Joynz Well-Known Member

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    Hi Observer

    Another insurance to consider is income protection insurance. I get basic income protection through my super fund relatively cheaply. However, it is important to consider your specific situation.

    Re. Health insurance: Have you compared the Medicare levy you pay in your annual tax return for not having private health cover compared to the annual cost of private health cover?

    The reason I got private insurance was to avoid this levy.
     
  7. Mumbai

    Mumbai Well-Known Member

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    Don't want to get into the whys and why nots.
    I personally have private health insurance for family, income protection for both of us, life and TPD for both of us, trauma for wife. We could have overdone it. But, we get a good night's sleep:)
     
  8. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

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    Nice rant and i agree!! You got a few other people excited to id say

    BUT my wife works at the nearest hospital and after the first week knew we didn't want to end up there and wanted to have more options than just the public system in WA, plus ambulance cover to get anywhere!

    I do not watch aca and would never base anything on what they say. I am insulted :cool:

    Not quite.they have equipment, but not best. Over east we're all for public but here we want as many options as possible! Just in case. You're in the city things are different. Nurses have been deregistered here and drs, well they are in the know so they can get around things;)
    have you been to wa?? :eek:
     
  9. Luke T

    Luke T Well-Known Member

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    Nice topic -
    The way i see it is ;when an insurance company takes your premium and covers you (whether you are covered for half the things you end up needing is another question though) -But
    they are basically saying -they are betting that they will make more money out of you ,than you will cost them in claims.
    So; basically i save the money and invest it (for many but not all insurances- )and then i get to use the money however i like and then in 10 or 20 years when i have had few claims i can buy another property or shares or whatever ,with my insurance money ,Works well for us !
     
  10. jins13

    jins13 Well-Known Member

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    We insure our IPs, so why don't we insure ourselves?
     
  11. Bran

    Bran Well-Known Member

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    The argument is that we have good public cover.

    But its a luxury, and one that I am willing to pay for (but also a no brainer when you look at the alternative levy)
     
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  12. Mumbai

    Mumbai Well-Known Member

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    No, they do not basically say that. They base it not on you, but a larger sample base. They expect a fair few to claim but also expect a lot more to not need to claim.
     
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  13. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

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    @Bayview another fun fact. .. recently the dr on for the night was in charge(tele health) of 30 hospitals in the area!
     
  14. Bayview

    Bayview Well-Known Member

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    Yeah; don't doubt that at all.

    My wife works in a facility that has 9 Theaters now, so their overnight levels are better; but still run on a shoe-string - even for a Public.

    No offense directed at you specifically; just the general blanket statement we hear all the time...even the reg News pull out the criticisms as well.

    Naturally; the Country areas will have bigger service issues than the Cities, too.

    On that note; a lot of "outer area" hospitals - and sadly; Frankston falls into this mindset - they struggle to get staff because a lot of the docs only want to be in the Cities and "higher end" facilities.
     
  15. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    I've got basic income protection with my super as well.

    The levy is zero as our household income is below $180000. I'll though have to pay higher premium in future if/when I decide to get private health insurance.
     
  16. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    True. Exactly my thoughts on how insurance business works.
     
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  17. Allgood

    Allgood Well-Known Member

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    Don't start me :mad: It's the one thing my wife and I are always at logger-heads over.
    We pay around $350 month (mind you our family does have a lot of health needs).

    When I went in for pretty major emergency surgery I was sharing a room in the public sector so I pulled the 'But I'm a private patient' card. "Oh, said the nurse," and she quickly scurried off, only to return with my 'free' paper. That was the extent of the private health insurance perks.

    The house always wins.
     
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  18. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    Then I suppose if the levy is not applicable (being under $180000) it's better to save the money and be "self insured" instead :).

    Btw, I think our health care system here is truly awesome (especially when I compare it to the one in the country I came from).
     
  19. Luke T

    Luke T Well-Known Member

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    Totally well said Observer!
    Our health care is the best in the world considering it comes mostly via the government levy only.

    I went in for an operation on private cover years ago which cost me about $4600 incl the premium and excess.
    I am about to have another similar operation in the public system for around $250 all up I am told.
    -So the extra funds we are hoping to use for a friend of ours who lives in africa who has cancer and is being charged a fortune to get treatment in the public system over there
     
  20. Azazel

    Azazel Well-Known Member

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    Fancy.
    Do you have to organise it beforehand to get your own room and all of that?