fish.01

If you have no private insurance but then find you need elective surgery and the wait is too long or you want to choose your surgeon, you can always become a private patient in a public hospital. My sister has done this for a few ops and it cost her a couple of thousand but way less than long term private insurance premiums.

All her other (extensive) care has been free on medicare.

Wol

A lot depends on where you are - since much of the medical facilities are State, rather than federally run - different people have different experiences.

It's pretty generally accepted that here in NSW the Medicare public facilities are running on empty (like the transport, water etc.) If you live somewhere with clean, modern hospitals you may feel better about things than if you have to go into dirty, understaffed, underfunded places.

Mrs Wol had to have an op this year and, after seeing my own experiences with three in the last two years, opted to go to Canberra: the hospital there was several orders of magnitude better than those in Sydney.

munch

We don't have hospital cover but we do have the extras cover mainly because we wanted the ambulance cover, dental and optical.

I have recently had lots of blood tests, scans a biopsy and seen a surgeon all under medicare and to be honest the total out of pocket costs have only been about $200 which is far less than 1 months premium for a family of 5.

The surgeon I saw knew RPH had a huge wait list so he has put me into another hospital which meant only a 2 month wait, to me if you are ill and your surgeon thinks it can't wait they will get you sorted as soon as possible anyway.

Hospital cover is great if you can afford it but for me I think the healthcare I have received upto now has been fantastic and very quick, far better than the UK and with very little expense. Apparantly, even if you have hospital cover you still have out of pocket expenses once in hospital - we didn't need that worry on top of everything else.

Debbie

quoll

OMG then that really doesnt say much for the Sydney hospitals then does it? Our elective surgery rates are highest in the country according to the Canberra Times and I quite believe it.

Wol

It's inevitable that when the place is overrun with politicians and foreign embassy guys you'll have all the best.

But you're right - it doesn't say much for the Sydney hospitals.

Sally Simpson

OK, I just need to clarify something!
If we qualify to pay the levy, is it 1% of your total income ? eg Income =$150,000, levy surcharge = $1500

Sorry, just trying to work out why you would not have private cover if you fall into the levy bracket!

bcworld

The levy is 1.5%.

The surcharge is 1%, and yes payable on total income.

Sally Simpson

OK, now I am confused!
What's the difference between the surcharge & the levy & when will I get charged for either, if at all?

ABCDiamond

The levy is the 1.5% that everyone pays

The surcharge is the extra 1% that the overpaid pay
ie: basically anyone over: eg:
at $50,000 you pay 1.5%
at $150,000 you pay 2.5%

Sally Simpson

OK, levy comes out of my salary I assume?

Surcharge may happen if we go over the limit.

Finally think I've got it by jove!

K sent for the simple explanation ABC!

moneypenny20

We have extras cover just for dental, optical and various therapies. So far we have got back more than we've paid in. We are unlikely to go over the joint threshhold so won't have the surcharge unless the threshhold comes way way down.

Our experiences of Medicare so far have been superb and I can't imagine Private being any better. First born's dental problems (surgery) are all being covered in full by Medicare, except the braces. Tiddler needed knee surgery, she had an appointment under the private system but a public appointment came up earlier . The surgery was done Private but we got about 80% back from Medicare. I think Tiddler will need the same surgery but that too should be covered and we should get some of her braces costs back from the Extras cover.

At the moment we've gone over the Medicare threshhold thing so get 80% back for all doctors appointments etc - last appointment set us back 5 bucks in the end.

Yes things can change, limits can change etc but I am satisfied enough with Medicare that I can't see us getting full Private, especially given our ages and the length of time we've been here. The loading would be horrendous.

bonka

Hi, sorry to jump in here & it's probably all been done before (I have tried the search) My wife & I have been in Aus for 6 years on the retirement visa, which requires you to have private health insurance, which we have with medibank private.
The fees have just gone up again & they have cut loads of the services, hip replacement & cataract sugery, among many others.
My question, is there another ins'co' we can try, when I looked at this a few years back, Medibank was the only co' offering 'Essential Visitors Cover'
Thanks, Roy.

bcworld

Try comparing here:

http://www.iselect.com.au/

I was just this second looking at it as I've just been notified of a 10% increase in premium this year as well. Reckon that's nearly 20% increase over 2 years now.

Wol

When we did our "temp" visa (before we changed to a PR) we took out the insurance with Australian Unity, one of the few that did that.

We subsequently cancelled it due to changing visa - they refunded the year's premium less a few dollars admin - very helpful.

fish.01

Just in case you don't realise Medibank Private have only cut those services out for the lower level covers and they were already restricted on those lower covers. Be great to have a list of all of them to compare though wouldn't it. Thing that makes it hard is knowing what agreements they have made with hospitals/dentists etc. Have the lessor known one's got the same agreements in place. I find it hard to work out.