Trying to estimate my potential living costs in Sydney, I was wondering if one could do without buying private insurance. Are there really any big advantages that one could not live without? Isn't standard Medicare cover good enough? Aren't people happy with public hospitals?

I think you'll find that a large number of Aussies and migrants alike don't have private health care. There's been several threads discussing it and it really sounds like in many cases it just isn't worth it.

Thanks a lot Pollyana. Only if its handy with you, could you perhaps share links to those discussions. I'll also run a search to see what I find.

I am not sure if it "worth" it but I would seriously look into as I know when a tax return gets filled out everywhere there was something about a 30% rebate and I heard the GOv were talking about penalising people if they did not have it.

I am not trying to scare anyone but all i say is look into it.

Its not worth it even if you have to pay the extra 1% levy. Do the figures you end up paying the fund or paying the tax office.

I am an emergency nurse and have heaps of experience in both the public and private hospitals in Sydney - I would definately look into getting insurance. Emergency care will be provided, and great care too, but it's from then on that you may like to choose what happens. Insurance covers absolutely everything from dental to having a baby and anything in between. You get a medicare rebate for a lot of it and you have a huge choice of doctors etc available to you - now not in a few months time.
It isn't essential if you have an accident but I would certainly give it some serious thought before opting to not have it....... It isn't as expensive as getting private cover in the UK either.
I wouldn't have been without it!!!!!

Hi,
I am an Aussie, been in Uk for 6 years.
Never had Private Health cover and do not see the need for it.
All medical treatment excluding dental, is covered and you are provided with top class service whether Private or not.
As a Tax payer you pay a levy, as mentioned above, so save your money.
Cheers,
Dennis

Its is one of those great dilemma's, don't have it, then something happens "which puts you on a six month wait list", and you wish you had taken it. Buy it, then in twenty years you have never used it.

When you are young we all feel we will never get ill, but age catches up with us all.

I thought about it for over 8 months, and finally decided to get it after thinking about how much more it would cost me if I waited.

You only get one year in the country before you will be hit with the Lifetime Loading Rule.

Here is Lifetime loading info

http://www.iselect.com.au/private-he...me-loading.jsp

In the end I decided that due to our ages, 43 and 45 and not getting any younger that I would go for Health Insurance, but I am lucky that I have a good salary so that helps.

You can cover for just the extra's i.e. Dental, etc and not have hospital cover. Our last dental bill would have been over $500 if it had not been for our extras cover.

We pay $82 a fortnight for a family of 4, two adults and two children.

What will your income be? depending on that, if you dont have it you may have to pay a higher medicare levy.

Medicare only provides a partial rebate on some things, certainly not all. eg Medicare rebate is only a % of the schedule fee, that is a fee set by the gov, and its usually nowhere near what they actually charge, so you only get a % of a ' suggested fee ' you pay the rest.

Having needed a few things done here, ( family of 5 so a few things have cropped up) , I would agree with the nurses comment on here, yep basically if you have a heart attack/car accident of course you will get seen ( emergency - they dont have a choice do they? ) but need something that can be put on a waiting list and its often several years. Twice last year we needed things done that would have been several years wait, one was for a child.

Its a big decision, and many funds have just reduced rebates again.

There is another consideration too, age levy, i think its if you dont join in first 12 months or by age 30 they charge a penalty if you join later.

As in aus you pay for all things dental, prescription, optical etc some people think the extras cover is worthwhile.

Not saying you should or should not have it, just a few points to look at.

I took my 3 kids to the dentist recently. Just routine check up/clean for 2 of them, the youngest needed a tooth removed as they were crowding. The total bill was $780 - totally covered by our private insurance. Dental isn't covered by Medicare here so I reckon it's worth it for that alone (and we'd have to pay the extra 1% levy with OH's salary). Obviously you need to work it out for your individual circumstances but for us it makes sense.

People must make sure that they check any policy for annual limits. I was looking at one recently, and they had a limit of $200 for dental, some of them have no limits.


If you are a single person, earning more than $70,000 per year, or a family earning more than $140,000 per year combined, then a correctly chosen Private Medical Insurance Policy will save you from paying the extra 1% Medical Levy Surcharge (MLS).

In my view, if you are a family of 5 or more, you will definately gain by having insurance, but for a couple ? The reason for this, is that the premiums are just about the same no matter how many children you have.

But remember, it is "Insurance", designed to be "just in case" and to help in the real emergency.

If you need a triple-by-pass, or a new knee, but it isn't imediately life threatening, you could wait a long time on Medicare, but with insurance you can just get it done.

I personally just stick with Medicare though.
Funny thing is; I insure my car, but not my health ? (I suppose I rely on Medicare, and hope for the best)

I have been on a 457 visa for 5 years and the insurance was prohibitively expensive so I self insured (i.e. had no insurance).

My son is currently undergoing orthodontics; the bill for that is about $6000 and so I pay that directly. On plans I have looked at, I could have had say $1500-3000 of that cost rebated if paying for private insurance at around $200/month.

By self insuring (not having insurance) you can choose to wait on a Medicare waiting list or choose to pay the full private cost.

To date I believe I have spent less money by not being insured than by having insurance.

I am subject to the Medicare Levy Surcharge and this amount is about equal to the cost of private insurance.

WHile Medicare has gap fees (it will cost you roughly $50 to see a GP but you get roughly $30 back) so does private insurance. For example, a $1000 bill may get say $800 paid from insurance.

My son had a minor operation on Medicare and there was no waiting list, the hospital and the care was the same as if on private. OK he didn't have a priavte room but those used to the NHS in the UK will likely find Medicare is better as some 40% of the population use private insurance there often are not waiting lists for simple procedures.

Further, those with reciprocal health cover from the UK should not be confused by the term "Emergency" cover. Emergency does not mean you are only covered for something life threatening; it means "treatment for something you need" as opposed to something relatively cosmetic.

This doesn't constitute advice on whether or not you should take insurance, but is just my experience to date after 6 years without cover.

I pay $95 per month for fully comprehensive cover (single) and there are no excess or co-payments. I recently had dental work which cost $1250 and got over $900 back. I've only had insurance for 10 months so that's nearly my premiums back in one hit - plus I get prescriptions etc paid for too.

After waiting for 13 hours in the Emergency Dept with a friend recently I am glad I can go private if necessary. Also, I was with the same friend in Orthopedic Outpatients and the wait for operations for shoulders/knees etc is TWO years!

It's a personal choice - best website is www.privatehealth.gov.au

Compare the Standard Information Documents of each policy after doing a search for the type of cover you are considering - it will give you exclusions and costs etc.

Which Insurer is that ?

I was looking at some the other day, and they all seemed to exclude almost everything during the first year.

You certainly can manage without it. We have paid $85 a fornight for three years and received little back.

BUT when I spoke with work colleagues after we arrived they were aghast that I should consider not having private health insurance - especially with a young family.

They are all Australian, smart and not particularly wealthy.

Read into that what you will.