Health & Family Private health insurance

Are you sure CTP will cover that Ferrari?

CTP Insurance In Victoria - Compare The Market

 

Well whatever coverage that's needed for that. You get my point basically I care more about their car than mine.

 

Thanks for the prompt to check my health care cover - and reduce my extras cover as don't need (and won't need) pregnancy, gastric and major dental ... sadly voluntary hip and knee gets lumped in with this lot, but we're still young and can upgrade back to hip and knee in 10 years.

Upped the excess to $500 for hospital admission and saving ourselves $100/month ... for those on Bupa ... I did a comparison and their charge is around $80/mth higher than Aust Unity for the same cover, refund and excess

 

Ah yes you're right sorry I misread your post!

 

Private health insurance. What a stupid concept. I have it purely for tax purposes and no other reason. The thing I don't understand is this:

A year ago I was at a friends BBQ drinking and dove into the pool. Me being the fool I am bashed my face on the bottom and split my chin, lip and broke my nose. After a few hours to sober up, got my missus to take me to the emergency department to get stitched up and the inevitable question came "Do you have private health insurance?" to which I replied "No" and I didn't have to pay a cent for the work that was performed on me (only an hours worth anyway). Now IF I had of said YES, than I would have had to pay.

I'm sorry but that is ridiculous in my opinion considering I fork out close to $800 a year just to have stupid health insurance to avoid the levy.

 

I hurt myself too much not to have it. Luckily/unluckily however the last time was at work which resulted in an ambulance ride, and a 4 day $12k bed stay in the burns unit plus emergency surgery etc etc on top of that. All under workcover

 

If your car or house get 'sick' then there is no coverage (unless you manage to get media coverage and a public appeal for cash). If your body gets sick there is the public health care system. So some people weigh up paying more for prompter, perhaps, better service or paying nothing and getting standard care (still very high by world standards).

Due to the medicare surcharge levy it's cheaper for a lot of people to have insurance even if they don't want it.

 

Incorrect.
If you had said yes, the public hospital would have charged your health fund for your care. They cover the excess, such that you are not out of pocket a cent.
So, "being the fool" as you described, you just needlessly took money out of the public health purse that could have been saved and perhaps used elsewhere.

 

and the xs is mostly covered in travel insurance

 

I have no issue if people are not insured (whether its health, travel, property, car whatever) so long as they make no claim on anyone else to be recompensed when you have an issue.

 

As I said I have the insurance purely for tax purposes with basic cover and a large excess. So from my understanding if I had of said yes, the public hospital would have charged my health fund and then my health fund would have passed on the excess to me as its my first time in hospital for the year. Have I got this completely wrong or am I right in my train of thought?

 

Initially I had it for the surcharge, I used to think it was pointless and I never used it, didn't update my glasses every year because mine are just fine, never went to the dentist, never found a use for it.

In the last 3 years it has been an absolute god send for my wife and I. I wish neither of us had ever needed it but when we did, it was there.

 

Can I ask who you use use to get it for $100 per month? We are with HFC, couple (40 & 44), no kids, no heth issues, none-smokers and our hospital only cover is $411 per month, and about to go up to $450+ from next month.

 

What kind of cover do you have?
Sounds like you'd need to shop around? NIB, BUPA, etc has cheaper plan it seems

 

We pay $340 per month, im 40, wife is 35, both were listed as smokers when we were underwritten (although have since stopped). No kids. It would appear that this price is good considering privatehealth.gov.au listed the cheapest as: $486.58 per month

 

Agreed, but the numbers work out well now.
If me and my wife didn't have private health insurance, we would be forking very close to what we pay for private health insurance.

The few extra dollars covers our ambulance fee and also the ability to go in as a private patient. What is making money if you then suffer in pain while you wait. No thanks.

Now with children, I happily pay knowing that if I did have to use it, I could, but like @Dan Donoghue has said, insurance is one of those things you "hope" go to "waste".

Damn right. Being able to pay get what you need done asap is totally worth it!
My wife's uncle had some issue detected in their brain. They were given a choice of waiting in public (estimated at 6 months - no guarantees) or paying $30k and getting it done now. They have 3 kids under age 15. They waited and got the free surgery - I personally wouldn't want to take the gamble - $30k is trivial in the scheme of things.

My dental is free and i still don't go.