Zambia

Hi

Wondered on some thoughts on this

I have basic hospital cover medical insurance, coming in at its new level of $189 PM for the two of us. Now as sure as eggs are eggs its going to go up. In my adult time on this planet I have never used my medical cover here or elsewhere.

The reason I have it is as follows. On arrival in Oz you have a year to take out medical insurance. After that piont you pay a levy should you then take it out.
So I decided to take it out to avoid the levy if at a later piont I wanted it.

All I really want now is dental and Ambulance.

So I was wondering if anyone faces simialar doubts?

Thanks
Z

Amazulu

Everone will have different views on this. We've had it since arriving here and intend keeping it. We have probably claimed as much as we have put in and with the 1% tax saving are definitely ahead. For instance, 2 bouts of day surgery for my dental implants cost in the region of $2500 of which I did not have to pay a penny.

Each to their own.

coolshadows

may be worth ditching the hospital cover and switching over to the extras cover. It's a lot cheaper but still covers you for ambulance, dental etc...

Check it out yourself...
http://www.medibank.com.au/Health-Co...as-Covers.aspx

Zambia

Cheers Well that's a +1 for dental.

@coolshadows if I could go dental & Ambulance and not get hit by the levy I would be sold.

moneypenny20

We didn't take it out when we first arrived and then when we thought about it it was well over the year and we are most definitely over 30 or whatever age it starts going up so we didn't bother. I have since taken out Extras but it's mainly to help towards braces, glasses and physio. Not sure whether to keep going with that though to be honest, I think I'd be better off putting the money in a separate account.

We've needed a few hospital visits including Emergency treatment, blood transfusions etc and Medicare have been brilliant (could be luck, no idea) and my eldest is about to have major jaw surgery which is also fully Medicare.

Could all come unstuck further down the line, needing treatment but having to wait ages but to be honest you can pay some extra for speedier waiting lists and still save a fortune on premiums. I guess it depends on what the system is like in your area for treatment, speed etc.

All I ever hear about is people moaning about the gap payments they end up paying for, maybe their fault but it doesn't seem like a good deal to me.

Bob Tonnor

Hi

Have a look at this site, http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/ its got most of the health insurers on and you can avoid going through any brokers.

Bob

jad n rich

I would love to dump the health inurance. But they have you by the balls, e extra tax if you dump it and the waiting lists if you dont go private.

Yes I know if I have a heart attack I will get into emergency, but suppose I need eye surgery or womens stuff, the wait lists on some of that basically you could be blind or dead waiting.

My middle teen just had a private OP, out of pocket fees were only $400, no too bad, on medicare the wait list which was quoted as about 2 years after we got a medicare specialist - we were on a wait list to even see one

However get this, the private surgery didnt work, 9/10 chance of that, we knew the risks, of course still got the bills.

Medicare will be fine if I am dashed to emergency, run over by bus, of course its immediate treatment, otherwise its usually a long wait. There was a post on here recently from a Lady who had Cancer - a fast growing tumour, the wait times on private V medicare were enough to make anyone think twice about keeping it.

roaringmouse

Even if you don't have private health, if something urgent comes up and public waiting list is too long for you, you can consider having the procedure done privately and pay for it.

May well come up cheaper in the long run for some people then paying for PHI all that time and normally claiming next to nothing.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

My opinion.... ditch it. Use the money to overpay on any mortgage and draw down from those overpayments should you need something in a hurry.

shiels

Currently have both extras and hospital cover but have been thinking of ditching the hospital cover due to the worry of gap payments should any of us have the need to go into hospital.

A friend who recently needed hospital care, with no private cover, seemed to survive ok I thought she also seemed to get a better service than the UK's NHS!

NickyC

But even if you do have private hospital insurance, you can still use Medicare if you want to. No-one will force you to use your private insurance so it's pointless giving it up just to avoid gap payments. You choose whether you use it or not.

If you already have hospital cover and it's saving you money (by saving you having to pay the extra Medicare levy) then keep it going.

We have the cheapest hospital cover possible - to avoid the extra Medicare levy - and we've never used it. Hopefully we never will.

shiels

Oh right, I didnt realise that.

Hopefully we will never have to use it either.

Vik2

IMHO, it's the hospital cover which is the most useful, because it comes closest to true insurance ... That is, protecting you against unexpected catastrophic expenses. For the extras (dental etc), I think it may be more cost-efficient to keep the money aside in a bank account

The bad point about giving up hospital cover is that once the lifetime health cover begins to apply then there is no easy way to get rid of it. (You have to pay the premiums with the loading for 10 years before it'll be removed again.)

This means that it's a good idea to try & keep some sort of hospital cover in-force, unless you're absolutely sure that you'll NEVER want to go to a private hospital.

itigo

We have been here exactly a year and in that time I have used my private insurance about 5 times to see specialists/operations etc. that I really wasn't expecting. The waiting times in our public hospital are really long - would have been 18 months+ for my particular ailment, whereas I was operated on within 6 weeks, and could have been sooner.

The care I got from my surgeon and specialists was amazing and definitely worth the premiums. I have never been phoned by consultants in the UK 'just to check how you're doing'. I was lucky if I saw my consultant again after the 1st visit!

So for us, we'll be keeping it...........it's one of those things - if you haven't needed up til now, is there much point? Trouble is, you never know what's round the corner. I guess only you can make that call.

Zambia

Some very good pionts many thanks for taking the time.

Still undecided.