Another price rise coming 1 April 2019 for Private Health Insurance. Any tips on saving some coin if you have one? Go Basic? Extras only?
Based on your experience:
Which provider has Extras cover that give the most value (cost, waiting periods, benefits)?
Which provider has Hospital cover that give the most value (cost, waiting periods, benefits)?
Happy with your provider or switching?
Cheers
Glad to hear your family member was treated well. I wish more Australians realised how good our public medical system is. Yes there are flaws, but in comparisons to other nations we should be proud and grateful I feel :)
Yep, and a relative waiting for heart surgery got treatment options, as 4 days in private vs 28 days in public.
However without having a clone there was no way to compare how fantastic the facilities are. They did think the meals were great and the service excellent. (They survived)
So examples of one are just that 🙂
Hospital and extras which is better than most people in my age group. Considering how much time I spend on the road and if someone was to happen I'd prefer to have better care with the hospitals.
We have four kids and have had two get braces. Extras are a waste of time unless you have chronic medical conditions that require continual treatment.
People justify extras by pointing to savings on $600 pairs of glasses or similar, but if you are content with $30 online glasses, you might as well save the money.
with 4 kids you are better off with health insurance as these dont cost extra. Family with 6 pays the same as family with 2
I understand, and I keep the records.
Even with 4 (pretty healthy) kids and two adults we don't break even on extras.
mskeggs, which cover you have, hospital only or medicare?
I have 4 fairly healthy kids. We claim far more on extras than the policy costs. Dental, orthodontic (bracers), podiatry (for one), chiropractic. We easily get back more than $2500 PA.
I think you need to add another poll option for those who have hospital cover only.
Done. Cheers
From 1 April, the insurers need to offer a higher excess (i think $750 is what mine is saying) which will reduce premiums if you don't expect to need the hospital cover. Still have to wait and see how much it will reduce the premiums though.
AND apparently from 1 April the insurers have to have services listed in a standard way, so that customers can actually compare like for like.
I'm waiting till 1 April and then shopping around once these changes are in place.
In my opinion
Hospital > Don't need it unless your 60+, high risk of being admitted due to known condition or only getting it to reduce Medicare levy. Getting it for pregnancy is preference, but public system is still pretty good from a medical point of a view. Downside for would be shared room with another mother/crying baby, or being put next to another room where the other room is actually a surgical ward and the patient is non stop coughing phlegm and you cant sleep with a newborn. Yes this happened… checked out early since it was easier to sleep at home.
Extras > Take out only when you need stuff done, then cancel. Example take out cover, pay 2-3 months worth which is about $120-$200. get as much dental work as you can do all in 1 go, claim max yearly benefit of 600-1000 then cancel. Net positive +400. Glasses only do the 6 month wait every couple of years, glasses will last you 5+years so you don't need running cover for 5 years.
Can you really cancel straight up after waiting period? Will the next provider see that?
Can you really cancel straight up after waiting period? Yes.
Will the next provider see that? Depends if you send the new provider a clearing certificate.
If you are doing the extra's only, don't worry about clearance cert, so yes you can claim multiple max yearly limits per provider after 2 months, cancel, repeat.
If you have hospital, you want to hand over your clearance since it transfers LHC details. Down side is it will include yearly extra's spend, which may add to the new provider's yearly limit.
I recently visited https://www.doineedhealthinsurance.com.au/ and the answer said NO. I am 31, married (wife working casually earning less than $10k per year) and 2 kids (1 y.o and 3y.o).. My insurance is about to hit $88.55 per fortnight.. the only thing we occasionally use is dental for odd fillings and clean. I'm beginning to think it's not worth it. Thoughts?
That website only works out whether you'll save on paying MLS by having private hospital cover. Your answer would be no because MLS doesn't apply to you(r income level) - simple as that. And this has nothing to do with your dental fillings and clean, which is extras cover.
Complex question with complex answers.
Our health system is breaking down. Yes, we are lucky to have great Medicare, but it's not the most fantastic system in the world. Private healthcare needs a massive overhaul. Something has to be done. The out of pocket expenses are mental so it's ridiculous that I pay Medicare Levy, Private Health Insurance for basically top cover if you want anything worthwhile covered and still have crazy fees to pay.
Unfortunately for someone like me, having private hospital is a must. Relatively young still but a long history of unrelated conditions needing surgery. What the public system would have offered me was unacceptable to me, or it simply wasn't an option unfortunately.
But for relatively healthy people with no history, I'd delay Hospital for as long as possible. Or spend the time to educate yourself about what you're actually covered for, what Medicare Items are, and what Gap / No Gap options mean.
Extras are a rip off. Except for dental and optical which can add up significantly.
I got Extras only for the scale and clean and the odd filling
Does that work out to be cheaper than just paying the dentist for those things?
I disagree that extras are a ripoff. For $50/m or $600/year, our family of four gets a free dental scale, clean (and xray if needed) every year. That alone would cost us $300 each.
The next best inclusion is the ambulance cover.
Then the physio has also come in handy on the odd occasion. I had to pay $20 out of pocket last time I went.
I've never need the other inclusions.
So while it benefits me, it wouldn't benefit those who don't go to the dentist.
Regarding hospital, I created this post a while back which indicated most people, including myself, don't need it.
Which provider are you with for extras only? Im with AHM for about $700 but you dont get a scale, clean and xray every year.
https://www.medibank.com.au/health-insurance/why-medibank/me…
I am on a corporate discount too https://www.medibank.com.au/health-insurance/work-your-perks…
I am with Ahm because it was the cheapest for hospital only and also gave me about 100 equivalent in flybuys, I think. Will change on 1 year mark to get bonuses with another provider.
Most years the best way to save some dollars is to pay your health insurance for 1 year in advance at the end of March. Basically locking in the pre-increase price for another year.
Of course only if you have the cash lying around at a low interest rate. Not if you need to put it on credit…
It sucks cover that costs $191/mth in VIC is available for $132 in WA and for $91 in NT.
Edit: Well sucks for victorians.
For those of you who are maintaining the same policy, what is the percentage increase in the premium?
Each year we see them, we always keep the same policy because they reckon it's an old product which is discountinued. To get the same benefits under the new system would cost us a lot more apparently.
I have no option to maintain the same policy, as it’s being killed off with the PHI reform (product tiers) coming in this year. I can either pay a similar price (slight rise) to be moved to the closest equivalent tier, but lose coverage for a key element of why I got my old plan, or pay a lot more for a different tier that doesn’t see loss of coverage.
I am finding it getting harder and harder every year. The premium always go up by double-digit, and the benefits seem to be cut down.
They maintain that our (old) Plan is still available, but we are paying a lot of money for that.
Cant remove hospital cover, cant remove extras, else it will "transform' into a different policy.
I have Extras only with HCF. For me, they were the best value (but they're not amazing to deal with).
I pay around $650/year. Have had it for the past 6 months and already claimed over $800 from a combination of:
- Gym membership
- A dental check up every 6 months
- 2 visits to a podiatrist (one of which had zero gap to pay)
- A visit to a psychologist last year when my medicare entitlements had been exhausted
- 3 sessions with an exercise physiologist
- A few physiotherapist appointments
I find it good value, but I use a lot of services. I was covered by my parents Hospital + Extras until I was 25, but only ever used the hospital portion once (day surgery when I was 16) so I thought there wasn't much point continuing with it.
the private health insurers are making it so hard to compare and select covers, that should be regulated.
at the end of the day they dont cover most things anyway and we rely on medicare
Theres a lot of discussion here about whether private health, overall, is warranted. But little about which are the best policies.
I have been with HIFWA for many years. It used to be better value. These days the amount paid back leaves some pretty big gaps. I'll be looking around for better value for money.
Family member required day surgery recently. They are part of top hospital family policy. Ended up going to local public hospital as a private patient as the wait was 2 weeks less. Public hospital paid the excess and patients was treated like a queen. Same surgeon at either hospital.
And the public hospital facilities and staff were fantastic.
I don't know where I'm going with this but awesome story anyway.