movingaway

Hi, hope someone can help. I've got 2 children who will need quite a lot of orthodontic treatment. I've started looking at extra health insurance but am not getting very far What amount of treatment is covered on Medicare and can anyone recommend a healthcare policy that will cover most of these costs.
We'll be in the bayside area, so if anyone knows a good orthodontist they can recommend that would be great. What sort of age do kids start having treatment?

Many thanks.

shellynelly

hello,

my mom and dad are here on holiday and dad's filling came out he went to the dentist yesterday and it cost him $294 for an xray and filling, i asked there about medicare but they said medicare doesnt cover dentistry, so it looks like we will be getting some insurance to, lol
someone mentioned HBF OR HDF or something like that, for insurance but i am going to check it out next week,

iamthecreaturefromuranus

To the best of my knowledge Medicare covers nothing for dental. You have to pay for the lot. This might help explain the insurance side of things a bit.
http://www.insurancecompared.com.au/...dental-ins.php

sa2uk2oz

hi
when joining most of the private health medical schemes there are usually limits placed on the benefits you will receive, ie. certain dental treatments require you to wait for up to 3 or 6 months before you can claim.. ie pre existing conditions..
good luck, we are with medibank.. its okay, but still have to pay in a bit for dental treatment.

NigelWaring

After the lengthy waiting period you will only get a token refund from your health fund, they pay little on any dental or anything related to it. NIB seem to give the best refunds on ancillary cover.

Choice

Our insurer will only pay $600 per year for a max of 3 years for orothodontic work. I think others are pretty similar. Paid the other $6000 by instalments ! We are with Australian Health management. P.S Orthodontic work is completely separate from dental work.

viviennef

I have super extras with hcf and I think they were the highest - I would just ring around each one, ask them what the max is that they will pay and what cover you need to get it.

Thats what I did and ended up with HCF as I have high claims for all the extras speech and physio therapy

Vivienne

moneypenny20

If you don't need or want the hospital cover or the main stuff, to my mind it's far better for your bank balance to open an account with as high an interest rate as you can find and pay in the equivalent to the insurance premiums every month. Keep that just for the kids orthodontic work. You never get back much for orthodontic work, if any and what you end up paying out in premiums you're in a lose lose situation.

My daughter is just starting the extraction/braces/extractions/jaw breaking/braces routine and she is 16. They wanted to wait until they were sure she had finished growing as much as possible. Different orthodontists work their own way and it depends on what the child needs doing as to when they start the work. Thankfully the jaw realignment surgery is necessary and not cosmetic and will come under medicare so we don't have to pay. I don't even want to start thinking how much it would be otherwise

movingaway

Oh dear, it looks like I will have to start saving but I guess there was always the possibility that I would have had to have paid if we stay in the UK.

Is $6000 the average spend for a complete course of treatment? We have already had 3 visits here in the UK to the orthodontist but no actual treatment - she is only 13 - but I was expecting this to start soon. 16 seems very late, I had hoped it would all be over by that age. Oh well

Does anyone know the proportion of residents who take additional health cover? I was just assuming it was pretty much normal.

the4ofus

After several years of visiting an orthodontist in the UK we were just ready to start treatment when we were moving so he would do nothing. My daughter is now starting treatment here on the sunshine coast at a cost of $5500 She is getting measure for a head brace at the end of the month which she will wear for approx. 6 months and then go in to braces. Its all very different treatment to the NHS where they where about to take out 4 teeth - which the OD over says she doesn't need removed. I guess when you;re paying it makes all the differnece .

All I'm saying is be prepared to pay.............................

Lynn xx

movingaway

I'm glad that they won't have to take out so many teeth. We have been told that that will be necessary as well as possible surgery in the future. Why does your daughter need a head brace, that sounds a bit scary Is that quite normal or specific to your daughter's treatment? Sorry, don't mean to sound too nosey!!

NigelWaring

Whatever way you go don't forget to keep all your receipts, there is a tax deduction, not much but it does help. I think that last year it was 20% of anything over $1,500, that's for the entire family not individuals so you only miss out on the first $1,500 once, not for each family member.

hevs

Its not necesarily the norm, although reading these forums make you this its a necessity.

Its personal choice and seems to depend where you live as to the wait times of things. Think of Medicare like the NHS, only miles better. However there are no medicare dental services. Medicare seem to cover everything else, at least where we live. Drs visits, Scans, bloodtests, pregnancy, xrays, day surgery, hospital stays etc etc. Private hospitals aren't a patch on the BUPA ones in the uk either.

We do what Money penny does and save the money that we would spend on PH and spend it on things as and when we need (root canal fillings in my case)

hevs

I'm trying to confirm if this means orthadontics at the moment.. does anyone know?
I know that you can claim prescriptions, first aid stuff, and any out of pocket (IE un bulk billed things) costs, but Orthodontists? anyone?

My daughters treatment is taking 15 months, no extractions and costing $4700 if thats any help to anyone

the4ofus

She needs the head brace to move her back teeth, she only wears it at home but for treatment to work effectively idealy she needs to wear it between 14-16 hours per day.

The receptionist at the OD told me about reclaiming tax on anything over $1500 in the tax year, orthodontics is included. She also told me that with private cover, the premium that you have to pay for orthodontics does not warrant the small amount you can claim back, it's just better to pay.

I know its a :curse: and a big dent in our pockets but we all want our children to be perfect - in our eyes anyway

I also have a 6 year old who sucks 2 fingers and we have been told that she will also need braces when she is older MORE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!

Lynn xx