sniffydog

Hello all,

The shippers are finalising the last few boxes (woo hoo!) - I'm a bit of a spare part so I'm getting on with a few preparations. Finally got round to thinking about medicare/health insurance.

Here in the UK we have a BUPA plan. I'm finding all the medicare stuff very confusing (I guess juts because it's unfamiliar - I'm sure once we're there it will be more obvious....).

I think the simplest way to put hte question is to say we want to have similar cover to our existing - i.e. NHS+Bupa. But there is other stuff of course like dental things (we're private here and just pay as we go..). What kind of policy should we go for to give us similar cover? What is already provided by medicare etc etc.

I've also read that there is a levy for each year that that you have to pay if you haven't taken out private insurance - will we have to pay this as new migrants..?

Sorry - wanted to keep it simple, but it's not! Help please!

S.Dog.

ABCDiamond

Check out http://www.bupa.com.au/ and see what they can do for transferring you.

Medicare Levy
Almost everyone pays this.
A Medicare Levy, currently at 1.5% of income, is charged to Individuals.
In a similar way to the UK "National Insurance Contributions", the Australian system has a Medicare Levy charged to most taxpayers, to go towards the costs of the Australian Medical System.

Medicare Levy Surcharge MLS
A Medicare Levy Surcharge, currently at 1% of income, is charged to Individuals and Families, whose incomes exceed certain thresholds, AND who do not hold a qualifying private patient hospital cover.

The 2009-10 thresholds are:

goldchoccycoin

www.privatehealth.gov.au is a great start. Make sure you consider age loading too.

itxrd

Do a search here. loads of posts on this recently inc one by moi. Will help

Scotty1

I found it all pretty confusing too!

You will not be charged an age loading if you take out private cover within a year of moving over.

Like for like cover with the uk is difficult as insurance here gives you a limit for cover and when you go over that, you pay the difference (the gap). I was confused by this term until I got the first dental bill. Of $250 for a filling falling out, my insurance paid $75, the difference was the gap - and here was me thinking I had insurance!

I have found doctors cheaper than uk and dentists much more expensive - the quote I have for a cap from the dentist is $1400 and insurance refunds about $300 once I have had the cover a year!!!

On doctors, you pay the docs every time you make an appointment and claim a set amount back from medicare (bet that would solve the missed appointments problem in the uk!). You can also choose to be treated free under medicare but may wait a long time for non urgent care. If you go private do not assume you will get most of your costs back from insurance (the gap thing again)

Get a few quotes for the sort of cover you want
Good luck
Scotty

Wol

Scotty1 is correct: there isn't really a comparable insurance to the UK private cover, which pays just about all the bills (except for any excess).

In Oz, the insurance pays the hospital, but all the other bills are refunded only in part - and a very small part in many cases.

Basically it pays the difference between the Medicare assessed fee and the Medicare refund, but the surgeon will usually charge considerably more than the former and you have to pay that difference. There may be an excess too.

spalen

I wanted a bupa type cover and went for medibank private with some sort of blue ribbon cover I think they call it - it was the top-end of what they offer.

family of 4 - 240$/Mth after the 1% medicare tax loading has been removed

i dont know if they're the best - but they've been bloody good all the times we've used it (and thats a lot ).

Becuase of my laziness when moving i missed the registration period by 1 week to avoid the 30+ loading, something that has cost me over 3K$ by now (rue!) so be aware of that cut-off.

ABCDiamond

I've never come across a doctor that does that. But then, almost all my doctors have bulk billed, so no cost to me.

An interesting article here...