furbacchione

I just got off the phone with medibankprivateripoff and i'm gob smacked at how bad it is. At least in a third world country you know where you stand - you don't have any coverage what so ever. I pay 300/month and the only thing it covers is 25% of the cost of what the government deems to be a fair price, which is thousands lower than what the doctors charge...

I'm also expected to dicker with the doctor to get a lower price. I didn't realize the medical system here was modeled after a Turkish bazaar...

And I have to shop for an anesthesiologist...

By the time I sort out all the bills I will be out of pocket around 3000 for a 45 minute operation to trim my knee cartilage...

I really am struggling to understand if the private system even worth it. I mean 3600 bucks a year but I can't afford to use it.

Has anyone else opted out and why

In Exile

dont forget that if you dont have private health cover, then you will more than likely have to pay the additional medicare levy...despite the cost of medicare coming out of your tax in the first place.

lol.

Japonica

I'd love to hear it too. I was ticked to find out that every time my specialist bills me $150 for a consult, I can't claim any of it back on private insurance. And this is a mid-range family policy. I'm wondering what the point is of having private insurance when I can't use it when seeing private specialists. You'd think they'd cover a portion of the fees even, seeing we pay them as much as we do every month.

One of these days, I should actually do the math and see if we save as much on our taxes as we pay to medibank every year. We don't get much back on the other small claims...$15 off chiro visits, so that's what, maybe $150 off for the year?

xzibit

I don't have it, never saw the point. Costs far too much, and then you pay more for treatment.

spartacus

Good god! I thought they had rules against that sort of thing!

Sherlock Holmes

I'm sure there are some circumstances where there are benefits to private cover.

However, if you are reasonably healthy etc. etc. then I can't see any benefit at all. The medicare service is perfectly adequate unless you are unlucky enough to have poor facilities near where you live.

Around here anyway, private or not, you see the same doctors, specialists, and surgeons etc regardless of your health cover.

You may be able to jump the queue for some things but in an emergency you'll be dealt with straightaway anyway. In my experience that is. I'm sure there are exceptions though.

itigo

We have it and have used it quite extensively while we've been here unfortunately. We are considering upping the extras bit at the moment but need to work out the value we'd get - got a feeling we'd still be more out of pocket.

It does annoy me that you can only get a Medicare rebate on private consultations. It's taken 3 appointments to build a relationship with one of my specialists but I now feel the $135 is worth it.

One of my other specialists has an agreement with Medibank and doesn't charge any gap for anything which is brilliant but he's the only one I've come across. We have a $500 excess as well which is also annoying.

I like it because of the wait times. If there's an issue, I don't want to wait for months.

What makes me laugh is all the extras they can tack on - so I paid the surgeon for the surgery then I had to pay for 3 clips, and a stent! You kind of expect it to be all in. One of the clips failed but I didn't get a refund!! Like a car service where they whack randomness on the end..........

macy

My son spent 2 weeks in the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brissy about 4 years ago with pneumonia, the hopstial, the staff , the surgeon were all fantastic, we had no health cover but we did come across families whose health cover had run out and were transferred from a private hospital to teh RCHjust because their funds on their healthcare policy had run out.

We have never bothered with private health care. Now if there was decent dental only cover we might have a rethink

Turban Explorer

The usual unfathomable bureaucracy propping up 50 layers of middlemen with the residual being a huge cost to the end user?

Apparently medical tourism to Malaysia is big business - I'm sure they could do your knee. I'd **** off private health and just make a little holiday out of getting stuff done. We're booked in for Christmas in Penang and teeth whitening.

Rambi

Barter and gambling. It's the Aussie way.

Toto I don't think we're in England any more

itigo

I've tried all the options (not by choice!) and agree, it's the same staff in the public hospitals and the ER care was great. However, nurses advised me (albeit cloak and dagger) to go private within the public hospital as I think the public adult wards in provincial Victoria can be a bit, (how to put this politely?) feral!

Amazulu

We are all in good health, but for various reasons have probably got more out of health insurance than we have put in. We now get a lot back on major dental - my wife had some work done recently and we got 2/3 back. I got a lot back for my dental implants. My wife has to have an op on her shoulder soon. As it is considered as non-essential, the wait time on Medicare is insane. Privately it can be done whenever she wants and insurance covers most of the costs (Medicare chips in too).

You pay more tax without insurance and as a high income earner, it's a lot for me - 70% of the premiums.

Private insurance is a no-brainer for us.

JoeBloggs80

I got it purely for tax reasons.

The cost of the basic couple package was only 100 or so more than what we would've paid in the medicare levy. And then we get deductions off dental and optomitrist so end being 'up'. Medicare is good enough for most things.

furbacchione

The formula for what you pay is:

1.5% x you assessable income = medicare levy

if you don't have private medical for you or your dependents add the medicare levy surcharge:

1% x your assessable income = medicare levy surcharge

xzibit

So if a couple earnt say $100,000 (for ease) a year between them for example, would they benefit from paying about $150 a month for private health insurance or not? $150 should cover basic hospital, and basic extras I'd imagine.

So that would cost them $1,800 a year between them, would they save that from the extra medicare levy or not?