brickies wife

I have just been informed by the School Dental Service, that my youngest will need orthodontic treatment, which will probably cost around $5000, this was no surprise to me, and I will be going to go ahead with the treatment.

I was planning on investigating Health cover, as we will have been here a year in September and are both well over 30. My first question is, if I take out health insurance, will it cover this orthodontic treatment, or would it be classed as a pre-existing condition. Secondly, can anyone recommend which Health insurance company to go to or which to avoid. and ,Thirdly, recommendation for a good orthodontist NOR Perth.

Many thanks


Tina

Weird Fish

Health insurance isn't all it is cracked up to be, so look very carefully before you jump on that bandwagon. They certainly won't stump up the full cost of treatment.

General Dental on our policy has a 2 month waiting period and Major Dental (orthodontics) has a 12 month wait. Sometimes they waive the 2 month, but I expect that as the problem has already been identified, it will also be classified as a pre-existing condition.

Our major dental is limited to $1000 per person per year and for braces it is limited to $300 p/a. Also even though the insurance company says they pay a maximum benefit of x that is not what is deducted from your bill it appears to be a percentage per treatment.

Cheetah7

I dont think you can get full cover dental insurance, many of the companies will give you only a small amount towards your dental treatment and even then, after a qualifying period.

Im trying to find a good dentist myself, with my insurance company Medibank, I get two free scale and polishes a year which will save me but I reckon it will be cheaper for me to fly to Asia to get fixed if I need anything major.

Weird Fish

A good excuse for a holiday!

Paul & June

You know, I'v seen some of the dental bills on here too. It would be far cheaper to fly back to the UK for a holiday too. See your friends and family and make a bit of time to fly to Poland for the day where dental is soooooo cheap.

andy170773

hi
if you are to get health insurance with just extras cover you will have a 12 month wait for ortho work, and even if your own dentist has diagnosed that your child needs ortho treatment, you will be still covered whether pre existing or not, as you will need to be referred to an orthodontist, who will then make his own diagnosis. ortho work generally takes 18 months to complete, most major dental plans will cover you for up to $2000 for ortho treatment, usually only around $700 of this per year though, so you need to work it so you can pay your dentist in installments to get the full benefit. most dentists understand this and are willing to do it this way.

quoll

No benefit in having braces fitted O/S unless you are prepared to go back for adjustments all the time because the Aussie orthodontists will rip the braces off and put their own on and charge you full whack as well. If you dont want to wait and go down the private insurance road, sometimes they will give you a discount if you pay up front and you could take out a personal loan to pay it off. If you pay over about $1250(?) in a tax year then you can claim any excess plus the cost of any other medical fees incurred during the year and get a tax rebate which also brings the price down a bit.

If you think that ball park your private health could cost $3K pa anyway and you would have to have joined for 12 months before you get any benefit for the orthodontics and would need to keep it up to the end of the treatment then you would probably be better off with a loan anyway unless your salary puts you over the surcharge limit.

brickies wife

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to reply. Not good news but plenty of good advice.

Will start putting in for overtime at work.

Tina