kitty4

Does/has anyone had a policy with 'health partners' ? If so I'd be interested to hear of experiences, good and bad. Also looking at GMHBA, another not for profit fund. Just deciding who to switch to as the big fund I'm currently with is not value for money in my opinion and the premiums are due to increase ridiculously. I'm dropping extras cover, may as well put those premiums in a savings account and buy glasses or go to dentist when needed. So called benefits from the extras are very poor. Any info on experiences with these funds appreciated before I make the switch. Thanks.

Swerv-o

I have basic Hospital cover with GMHBA - seems fine, though I have never used it - I just consider it to be a mechanism that allows me to pay the extra tax by monthly instalments rather than in one lump sum after tax time.


S

louie

We're with Health Partners and in the middle of two claims. Being relatively new migrants, this is my first real experience of using both Medicare and Aussie private health insurance, so I can't compare Health Partners with anyone else as we've never been insured with anyone else.

I was shocked at the enormous difference between the amount of the surgeons' and anaesthetist's fees they cover and the amount charged (over $6,000 in my case) but from my post on this (which I will update when it is all finally sorted), I gather this is not unusual.

Health Partners admin etc seems fine - they answer calls and emails quickly, though I've not yet submitted the surgeons' fees claim so don't know how quickly they pay up. But I'll be investigating other funds when I come to renew and also looking into gap cover. I'll be using this website - Medical Fees Online - to check how much I would have been paid for my ops by other insurers.

One other not so good thing about Health Partners - it seems they operate on a "good first year rate then we'll leg you over when you come to renew in the hope you won't shop around" basis. The policy we took out last year is apparently now a "closed fund" so surprise, surprise, next year's premium is going up about 10%. I presume we'll be able to transfer to the equivalent replacement policy but I've not checked this.

To balance that though, they allow you to suspend membership if you are going overseas for more than three weeks. A quick scan of other big company's policies on that is that you have to have had your policy for a year and be going abroad for more than two months to do that. As we go back to the UK twice a year (and last year one of those visits ended up being 14 weeks due to family issues), that has effectively saved us a lot of money.

rammygirl

You also need to compare what it costs with no private healthcare at all. We decided to self insure as premiums plus gap costs really add up. We can use the cash saved to access care over and above Medicare if we wish to, but so far have not needed to. We pay for optical and dentist but again less overall Than premiums plus gap fees.

As we are semi retired we do not earn over the threashold for the levy so it works for us.

Some people with cover still end up going through Medicare for some things as cheaper than the gap for private cover as they charge top dollar for private work! You can and should shop around!

kitty4

Thanks all who have replied for the info. It does seem to come down to the surgeons fees and the gap. Also I suspected some funds pay less benefits than others and I wasn't sure how to find that out. Hope it's going ok for you Louie!