Apparently GMHBA is waiving most 2 and 6 month waiting periods on extras if you sign up before 31st may. No idea whether they are considered "good", but their bronze extra policy is $25/month with no rebate, and covers a decent portion of dental/optical. Planning to sign up myself.
Really? I've never had any success with that. Can you tell me which funds will waive the waiting period for you if you ask?
BUPA, Medibank for an example are ones that offered to waive all waiting periods for me to change over to them.
They are waiving waiting periods because you already were with another health fund and served waiting periods there….
@Question: Nope, I work for a major insurer and they'll waive 2 and 6 mo waiting periods if you insist.
Apparently
The first word of the description fills me with confidence already.
I don't represent GMHBA in any way, so i don't make any claims that i know the full details of their promotion. Maybe you can read their promotion page to check for yourself?
I find GMF Health to generally be the cheapest for my situation. They are the only one I could find that includes Psychiatric hospital on their lowest level of cover (About 45% of people will have some kind of mental illness at some stage of their life). I've had to call a few times even though I haven't had to make a claim (I stuffed up the application form) and found the staff to be super helpful. They are based in WA, so that means extended call centre hours for Eastern states.
Thanks for the heads up, i never saw them listed on privatehealth.gov.au when i was doing comparisons…
Do you know if they pay 100% of the set benefit or they have a gap?
Edit : Just realised that GMF is significantly more expensive…benefits might be better though.
i'm already a member so if you sign up, message me, and I split the $100 referal with you ($150 for family, in which case you can have $100)
Is Frank health insurance better? Considering they are in the same corporate group.
Their cheapest extra policy has a 50% gap and costs $32 per month with no rebate (more than GMHBA). I'm guessing no…
Word of warning! I work in the health industry as a provider so I'm very familiar with how private health funds rebate.
GMHBA has one of the lowest rebates of any of the other funds. In general they only pay about 20% above the Medicare MBS fee which means if you need to have surgery you will be out of pocket significantly more than many other funds.
Another thing to look into is which funds allow providers that often charge a gap (the majority) known as "known gap funds" (eg MBP, AU, etc) which have smaller out of pocket fees as a result and others that have "no gap" policies (eg BUPA, HBA, NIB etc) that don't allow a gap and thus the patient ends up with a lot more out of pocket when the provider charges a gap.
The general public believes that health funds pretty much cover you for the same amount which is not true. Like anything in life read carefully what you are and aren't covered for AND how much you're covered for and don't make your decision purely based on price alone. Otherwise you'll be in for a bill shock when you go into hospital.
actually if you goto a public hospital, you're better off saying you don't have private health cover. Too many people say they do have it, get the exact same treatment as a public patient as they would if they're private patient (same doctor, bed, etc) but get a bill at the end to pay the gap.
Actually this is NOT true.
All public hospitals offer private patients that use their insurance a guarantee they will not have any out of pocket fees or even any excess payable.
In fact they encourage you to use your private health insurance as it gives them much needed funds which governments have neglected to give them in recent years. As a result they ensure the patient will never be disadvantaged at all by using their insurance.
How does this apply for an extra policy?
I'm looking at the policy document and it says that dental benefits are a set amount per item and optical benefits is up to $170 with a gap of 20%…
Not certain on the extras as I don't deal with them but I don't think extras are part of a gap/no gap system..however if gmhba pays below the others for hospital rebates then you're best to check exactly how they compare for extras cover as well.
westfund is the one i use. it is better than this ?
Yes west fund are part of the Australian Health Service Alliance and most of those funds allow gap cover so they have smaller out of pocket fees than no gap funds.
You can see a list of all the funds of AHSA here.
https://www.ahsa.com.au/web/memberfunds
Other funds that have smaller out of pocket fees when a provider charges a gap that are not on that list include Medibank, Australian Unity.
djz, as i explained earlier, the gap system you are referring to does not apply to extra cover…
I just looked at westfund extras, and their optical benefits are really low.
I called them earlier, they told me that for optical benefits, i can claim back 80% with a max of $170. Dental is a set benefit per item.
Not a bargain, most insurers will do this anyway.
Prove it. I have tried getting wating periods waived before and the people i spoke to on the phone just said "No, sorry, we cannot do that".
As I said above, I work for a major insurer.
In other words you are downvoting because you work for a competitor.
No, I'm negging because I work in the industry and know how it works.
Just thought I would mention that when it was said the ALL PUBLIC HOSPITALS ensure there is no cost for patients that use there health insurance when they come to hospital. It is NOT true that they will NOT pay the gap for the doctor and anaesthetist. A public hospital can only guarantee that the accomodation is covered so if the doctor charges more that is at a cost to the patient. As well if it is elective surgery then you will need to pay the excess, the excess is only covered if it is an Emergency. I know this as I have family who work at a public hospital.
ok I'll try to clear it up a a little.
If you use your private health insurance in a public hospital then virtually all hospitals will not charge you anything out of pocket for your admission or your surgery for emergency surgery (and many but not all will do the same for elective surgery). You definitely won't pay an excess to your insurance for emergency surgery. It is rare for the surgeon or the anaesthetist to charge a gap in a public hospital (certainly even less likely for emergency surgery) but 'm sure there are some out there that may. Even IF they are to charge you a gap they must advise you of this and provide a rough estimate prior to the procedure (informed financial consent).
The hospitals are willing to cover your excess as they will still be better off than just getting the medicare rebate.
So in summary. It is fine to use your private health insurance in a public hospital. Much of the time you will be ZERO out of pocket and if there was going to be any charges (excess, out of pocket etc) you must be well informed of them in advance otherwise you are within your rights not to pay.
What makes this a bargain over the other covers? Most will waive the waiting periods if you ask