Sue2

I've done a search on here and its left me a little of what to do. I've seen alot of post's saying... should you...shouldn't you get insurance but I feel in case of serious illness we should. We would like to get some Dental & Medical Insurance.... can anyone recommend a company

Any info would be great as we'd rather look at companies thats been recommended.

Cheers

Sue x

molloymj

Hi Sue,

My girlfriend and I have just signed up with Medibank Private and it costs us $130 per month for both of us for a mid range cover.

Medical insurance is handy over here if you earn more that $100,00pa as a couple, as if you don't have it at the end of the year you have to pay an extra 1% to Medicare.

The Medibank website http://www.medibank.com.au is quite good and I found it the cheapest when were looking.

Good luck!

Mike.

Sue2

Cheers Mike, I'll take a look

Sue

Milo

I suppose it depends on if you think you will need it or not as medicare covers quite a lot really. However, we are a family of 5, we were gobsmacked to see we had earned over $100,000 this year when we did our tax thingy. We took out optional extras with MBF one and a half years ago which has been really worth it with all the families optical and dental care, my daughter is going for a small brace today. However, I decided to take out hospital cover all of this has been with MBF and they have been great, I wish I had taken it out earlier as I now need it, which I thought I would never do. Taking into consideration the extra we have now had to pay with the medicare levy I think it is a good option worth considering especially if you earn over $100,000.

I would say look around and check what your getting, we pay around $170 for a family of five each month, and thats for budget hospital care with $500 excess, and optional extras, such as optical and dental.

Marie

TrickyTree

Hi Sue

Myself and the other half get free medical care through the company I work for and they use NIB. Only used it for a trip to the dentist as of yet but cant complain.

TT

mand8002

Hi Sue

We took out the Medibank extras cover which covers dental, optical etc. When we went to the dentist we got just under half the bill covered by the extras cover, and I also get money knocked off my contact lenses, so we think it is worthwhile.

Amanda

Amazulu

I've just got a quote from HBF of $187/month with a $100 excess for all 3 of us. If you do take out medical insurance, you need to do it within, I think, 3 months of arrival or you have to pay an age loading of 2%/year for every year over 30. So, even if you are not planning to take out private medical, I would take it out for a short while so you don't have to pay the loading in the future.

brisnick

i believe if you stop your medical insurance, you have to pay loading based on the period of time you stopped for. so once you are sucked in, that's it.

Amazulu

Thanks for that. I'm on a steep learning curve at the moment!

Vash the Stampede

And don't forget your 30% government rebate on that health insurance!

Sue2

Better hurry up then!!!!

Thanks everyone for info, will look into tonight and sort it out A.S.A.P

sue x....send you all some K...cheers

jad n rich

We have medibank private, fairly happy with it so far.

Anybody moving out here should be aware the lovely govvy (qld first, other states would probably follow if they can get it though) has proposed that high income earners ($33,000) and above will be expected pay hospital costs, in other words end of the free hospital system.

Keep an eye on the news/papers, I think there will be massive opposition to this proposal, with some papers already screaming it will become the american hospital system, however other points of view say it could come in as early as 2006. I did post link ages ago, but its back on the agenda again now. Would not panic, but probably best to assume most of us will need to budget for private if the states cant fix chronic hospital problems.

Sue2

Thanks everyone, much appreciated.... we're going down to Medibank in the morning.

Cheers Sue x