Health & Family Private Health insurance

Hi all,

Interested to hear who and what policy's are being used by the group (if not too personal)

Il be honest im just getting health insurance for tax reasons to avoid MLS but thought we might as well get something we can use as a couple if need be..

30yr couple

Health.com.au for a couple is one of the cheapest at around $148 a month - basic

BUPA looks in the middle/upper range $248 per month - Basic + extra's

Is any of it really that useful? Wife works as a Nurse and has done both Public and Private - with the level of care along with facilities in both she would go public everyday of the week..

 

If you had private health cover, would you still go public (waiting times permitting) ?

 

In my opinion, if you are really really sick or injured, then the public system seems fine. But if you want elective surgery - hip replacement for example, then there can be long waiting times in the public system. This is where private health insurance is worthwhile IMO.

 

@Codie My wife is also a nurse and we went with Nurses / midwives health. They have a more extensive range of treatments covered for your money then other funds. We were with medibank but were getting screwed.

Comparing on the gov website helped us a lot in our decisions.

 

Do they cover nurses families as well? I haven't heard of it before .... and I do despise private health cover so hopefully could be a better option

 

This thread may help - cheapest possible health insurance

Private health insurance

Do a full forum search for health insurance and you may find other threads

 

Depends on your age and what you would use private health cover for. I am happy with the public system and pretty much have it for tax purposes, however I do like some of the extras. I have singles cover with AHM (lite cover plus) and it’s about $140/month mid tier tax bracket.
What I like about AHM is that I can use extras for whatever I like ($1500 cap) and always get 60% back. I don’t have a cap for dental or optical etc. So this way, it has value as I pretty much use the whole thing (for e.g. I get a remedial massage once a week due to the amount of driving and sitting I do for work).
I worked out whether I would be better off with paying for a crappy hospital only cover and just paying for things like dental etc. The answer was no.

 

I had a heart attack a few years back and as it was an emergency admission I was treated in the public system despite having insurance - a nurse friend at church told me I was better off in public since the wider variety of staff looking at me meant that anything untoward was less likely to be missed. This year I've had two lots of surgery for a brain haemorrhage with BUPA picking up the bill - high tens of thousands, I think. Being self employed, the key bonus was agreeing a date for surgery and it being kept to, also the pre and post op appointments with the surgeon and for CT scans have (with one exception due to an emergency) been on time, in contrast to earlier experience of wasting a whole morning for a notional 1000 appointment at a public hospital.

In contrast to hospital cover, which is genuine insurance, I realised a while back that extras is more a question of budgetting than insurance so gave it up last year.

 

As we have private health cover, my wife’s surgeon offered her robotic surgery which they said wasn’t available in the public system.

They prefer robotic surgery over keyhole surgery for her situation as it gave them better control and they could use cameras (in her case, 4 cameras) to get deep inside the incision (better view).

End result:- better outcome for patient (supposedly).

 

Have just found out I will be needing hip replacement surgery at some stage - my HCF insurance doesn't cover joint replacements so have decided to increase my insurance for the 12 month waiting period or more until it is done, a blow to my budget but that's life.
My previous experience of the Royal Newcastle [attached to the John Hunter] where public patients go for knee replacements etc was anything but nice, its that particular hospital I want to avoid.

 

@Codie what did you end up doing?

We are looking at ditching our private cover. Just can't justify the cost. I have no idea what "extras" get us!!?? Wife saved $70 a couple of years ago on glasses ffs. Can't justify 3000 per year for that
We'll probably drop back to ambulance cover next year

 

My last trip to hospital via ambulance (a mere 35km) was something like $1,800 - health fund picked up the tab.

My out of pockets were the the gap on the anaethetist and a few minor expenses only.

Biggest waste of money was travel insurance for domestic travel - doesn't cover your medical expenses as they expect medicare & your health fund to pick up the tab (doesn't specifically exclude it or nominate it in the PDS only foreign expenses on medical). It did pay for the parking at the hospital, the tolls, parking for specialists follow up visits, Mrs No Mates' accommodation and fuel on the trip home.[/user]

 

You need to watch this: my Medicare policy said something like "ambulance in case of a medical emergency", which was fine when I had my heart attack, but in a less serious situation could give them some wriggle room. That's why I also have Ambulance Victoria cover, just $46.

 

Have not actually done anything just yet, still with Health.com.au for $148 month - so currently saving $1800 on MLS by paying $1776 on basic hospital. Technically its costing me nothing as if i didn't have it id be up for the MLS anyway

If i was paying $3000 as you are i would absolutely be quicker to do something or make it useful.

After spending quite a lot of time researching Im considering going with a Westfund product for $245 a month. It has pretty comprehensive Hospital cover and i have worked out the extra's will save me around $450-$500 a year anyway so really its only costing me $2500 or $700yr if you count out MLS - for a reasonable high level cover fund.

Main uses for me will be the dental, Massage and Acupuncture (sports) - Gym fee's, you even get $ back for buying vitamins.

I can sleep at night paying the difference of $700yr

 

Just thought I would share our recent experience.

The last 2½ years have been a horrid and torrid time for us, especially the wife with her health issues.

One thing we never focussed on was the cost of the medical services provided. In fact, we didn’t really want to know (as it would have been a scary number). We just did what we had to do.

The financial side of things were:

• Total Cost of Medical Services, Hospitals, etc: $188,000
• Total Benefits Paid: $150,000 ($Medicare $39,000, Private Health: $111,000)
• Out-of-Pocket: $38,000

Thank goodness, we had private health insurance.

The wife is now coming out the other side and we can get on with life.

 

Hard to like @kierank but you know what I mean. We have had a similar few years cost wise and are grateful for our private health insurance. Very pleased to hear your wife is improving. Best wishes to both of you

 

Over the past few years we’ve used extras for dental (minor & major), orthodontics, physio, chiro, glasses, psychology, and probably something else I’ve forgotten.

We switched funds in December and we’ve got more money out of the fund than we’ve paid in premiums so far (partly due to a 2k payment towards the braces).

 

I echo those few posts above, I would have been severely impacted both physically and financially if it weren't for my private health.

My private health got me 9 hours with the amazing surgeon I had who worked his magic.

Public get the same surgeon...... but they only get 1 hour of his time due to demand and cost, He could not have worked magic in 1 hour and I would be impacted, still alive and still okay but impacted for the rest of my life.

I find it amusing all the anti private health people have the main argument of "But you get the same surgeon on public". Yes, you do..... but you get less of his time .