dave66

Hello Folks,

Looking for some advice. Thanks to any takers. Apologies if you nod off

I am 38, my wife is 35. We have been in Oz for 4 years and have not bothered with getting health insurance, because we did not earn > $100K. We do now + we also have 2 kids and another 1 on the way, so the tax breaks change slightly.

I believe it is in our interest to get medical insurance. However, as there is a 12 month waiting period for pregnancy related hospital procedures, would it be worth our while getting medical insurance ? It will cost us approximately $2000 to cover the whole family with medical insurance....just the essentials. And because of the waiting period it will not cover the birth, therefore we will have to pay for it ourselves. So whats the point in getting insurance ?? ie. we would be paying $2000 + whatever the pregnancy costs are. So it could end up being loads of money ...

The medicare levvy surcharge we had to pay this year because of not having life insurance was $2,690 ! So the question is should I get health insurance or not. I am confused. Would I be better off sticking with medicare and just paying $2690 again.
What do other people do ?

Thanks for any help.
Sorry if its not clear.
Dave

kirsty&al

Hello,

Assuming that the $2,690 medicare is made up of the normal 1.5% and the additional 1% for higher earners then the additional component on its own is $1,076. If you don't take out private health insurance then you will still be paying this with no additional benefits.

As far as the pregnancy is concerned, you have to pay for that regardless of whether you choose to go with private insurance or not; so you should really take it out of the equation.

Therefore your decision should come down to whether you want to pay approximately $1,000 ($2000-$1076) for the benefits of private health cover (e.g. dental, optical, ambulance, etc.) or not.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Alistair

PS: Have you looked around for cheaper cover? I found HCF gave me the best deal (I'm 38, wife's 35 and 3 kids).

PPS: Do you really need to go private for the pregnancy? I thought giving birth in a public hospital was covered by medicare - although I'm not 100% sure on this.

harveyhare

I believe it is in our interest to get medical insurance. However, as there is a 12 month waiting period for pregnancy related hospital procedures, would it be worth our while getting medical insurance ? It will cost us approximately $2000 to cover the whole family with medical insurance....just the essentials. And because of the waiting period it will not cover the birth, therefore we will have to pay for it ourselves. So whats the point in getting insurance ?? ie. we would be paying $2000 + whatever the pregnancy costs are. So it could end up being loads of money ...

Forget the pregnancy- look at the benefits if there are any for the rest of the family.

Di

jad n rich

We have three kids and were not happy that we had to pay medical inurance simply because our incomes over $100,000, which in my opinion is NOT high for a family of 5 in australia even without a mortage.

Anyway forced into it or get a tax penalty we have however been pleasantly surprised. Most years the majority of the $2220 we pay is actually claimed back on dental and optical costs alone. I am amazed but think of the dental prices here and you start to see why a family of 5 can easily spend thousands on dental/optical a year, especially when kids reach school age braces/glasses etc. As much as we didnt want to take it out, its actually been worth it.

NickyC

Our income is also over the thresh-hold so we have private health cover. Like you we are ahead on the deal. You'd be $690 a year better off, having paid for the cover - even if you never use it.

And you don't have to use your private health cover if you don't want to. In fact you're better off by going through the pregnancy as a public patient (and paying almost nothing) than as a private patient, where you'd be up for all sorts of gap amounts.

We originally just had the basic (minimum) hospital cover, really only to avoid paying the extra Medicare 1%, but we later added extra cover for dental and optical etc. With two kids that both wear glasses and needed braces, it soon paid for itself!

dave66

Thanks very much for all the replies. Much appreciated. I will get some insurance today.