Private Health Insurance Yay or Nay?

rayaroundoz · Senior Member

Private Health Insurance Yay or Nay?

Dhutime · Senior Member

They say that after 60 people get get sick and start using their private health insurance so you will be right for two more years .
Having said that I wouldnt travel without it . Between the two of us we are close to 50 thousand dollars just this year. Cost us $4500
Doctors and specialists charge heaps but they keep you going.
Dhutime

Desert Dweller · Guru

Yay definitely. Particularly as you get older. Saves being put on a slow moving waiting list. Each to their own though.

Possum3 · Guru

Even if you bail on Private Health Insurance - Make a point of keeping full Ambulance Cover - Being a pensioner or on Health Card will not cover you if you are away from your home State in many cases. In the Centre Ambulances and Air Ambulances can cost thousands of dollars.

hako · Guru

We have it and are starting to use more per year than the premiums although I've been a member for 58 years. If we did not have private cover my cancer would not have been picked up for at least 12 months in the public system due to waiting lists which could have cost me my life.
If you decide to drop off and then later rejoin you may find you have to pay a much higher premium.

Good Luck.

rayaroundoz · Senior Member

Thanks for the feedback.
Possum3, yes I wouldn't be without ambulance cover. Will checkout other options within my current cover and see if I am paying for anything I will never likely use. Its hard to par back the essentials. Rego and insurance and maintenance and fuel and food. The list goes on. Maybe I could cut out alcohol altogether which I currently have included at $20 per week.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I may be lucky . Donât have any . Have slush fund for health etc . I hope not to call on .,

Lancelot Link · Senior Member

I say yes and agree with Hako. We had private health, my wife contracted a genetic cancer and the final battle after 4 or so years, maybe 5, would have costs us over $600,000 for the care, drugs and ancillary care. Total cost to us was about $3000. I am sure my wife was better treated and more comfortable under the private system than the public system. The carers may have made more money, but no waiting lists and it was not a supermarket checkout system! Well worth the feeling of better caring for a loved one as well!

Izabarack · Guru

The most important word is "insurance". We are discussing future need. Ask the question to someone who has been wheelchair bound for a couple of years waiting for a publicly funded hip replacement for a perspective. Ask someone who has had a publicly funded hernia op and someone who has had the same condition attended to, privately.

Personally, been private too long to give it up now and at this age.

Iza

the rocket · Guru

Hi. We live in qld. travel full time. Have no private health cover. Did once though. Does not worry us. I have rheumatoid arthritis and when first diagnosed needed specialist help. Went on the public waiting list but saw a private specialist first , cost a few hundred from memory n got some back from medicare but within 6 weeks saw a public specialist n have been seeing ever since. No problem. Strop was feeling sick. Saw a gp who referred him to a hospital and immediately seen And treated for bowel cancer.

In qld, we have found with the public system, if you are sick you will go straight in. Could not have got better service if we paid for it. also, a friend went overseas, came home n was sick. Straight in, and he got fitted with a pacemaker, defibrillator from memory. He is well too. Do not know about waiting lists for other problems though And do not know about other states.

with a limited income , private health is not even a thought in my head.

good luck with whatever you decide.

Paintar · Veteran Member

I always work on the principal that if you pay for insurance you wont need it, its when you havent got it then you need it. Touch wood its worked for me.

brickies · Guru

I have hospital only cover no extra , The thing that worry me I might be able to afford the health cover but the out of pocket expencence for doctor who charge well over what you get from medicare rebate , Unless you can afford the out of pocket money we are wasting our mony paying heath cover .

the rocket · Guru

brickies wrote:
I have hospital only cover no extra , The thing that worry me I might be able to afford the health cover but the out of pocket expencence for doctor who charge well over what you get from medicare rebate , Unless you can afford the out of pocket money we are wasting our mony paying heath cover .

Totally agree.

Cupie · Guru

Our Family is a firm YES.

We have had top cover since it was first available. I think that I would give up drinking before Health Cover. The Van would certainly go first.

Although we have not had to use it too much now that the kids are grown up and SWMBO frequently asks 'should we reduce our cover, perhaps pay an excess', the answer is always NO.

Early this month I went into a Private Hospital with no waiting, for an Angiogram. Day surgery that would usually cost circa $600+. $0 out of pocket for me. I did note on the pre admission form that intensive care was around $3,000 per day & they had my credit card before I was admitted. Oh yes, the Consulting Cardiologist charged the Health Society refund amount too. No surcharge. All it cost was the parking fee. Wonder if I can claim that?

(oh yes, no surgery required as a result of the Angiogram .. so that's good too but cost was never a factor)

I say find a way to stretch the budget. We use CBHS & can't find a better one for our needs.

lizard · Veteran Member

our neighbour had throat cancer , no private heath cover ... he never had to wait & didn't have to pay for anything on the public health service ....

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Depends on your health ? ESP when younger . We put things into investments. We have the funds now to pay for what we need . We feel we are infront even though we have paid for operations ( knee and back operations )!. That is not saying we sit back and depend on public system alone !! So far paying and subsided with Medicare . When going overseas I take health / travel insurance though !!

Roving-Dutchy · Guru

I definitely vote for having health insurance.
I think I,m still around now because of private health cover, 12 years back had a small lump on side of face, had various scans and biopsies all clear, saw specialist he said no worries just a benign lump but if you have health insurance straight into hospital tomorrow and I'll remove the lump.
Pathology came back in a weeks time, it was a secondary melanoma so back into hospital for further major surgery and 12 years later still alive, because of no delay in treatment.
We will go without other things rather than be without insurance.
Cheers
David

Bill B · Guru

lizard wrote:

our neighbour had throat cancer , no private heath cover ... he never had to wait & didn't have to pay for anything on the public health service ....

If you have a life threatening issue yes you will generally get attended to promptly but if it is a hip/knee replacement for example you go on the waiting lists if relying on the public system.

My other half recently had 2 mths in hospital in her own private room, cost to CBHS approx $70 k & cost to us NIL

Bryan · Guru

I'll have private health insurance as long as I can afford it. If or when cashflow gets very tight, then I'll ditch it.

brickies · Guru

BilB did your doctors bulk bill , My son father inlaw in top cover with BUPA $7000 out of pocket .Health dosen't cover add on only hospital cover .

Mackayak · Veteran Member

I am in the yes camp for privet heath. Look hared at the company you are with I know my cover cost a bit more but we normally have no out of pocket. My wife was in hospital 4 times last year and me once we pay the first $250 but a there then this the only out of pocket was $80 and I would of hated to of been paying the bill.

-- Edited by Mackayak on Sunday 14th of January 2018 01:50:38 PM

Bill B · Guru

brickies wrote:

BilB did your doctors bulk bill , My son father inlaw in top cover with BUPA $7000 out of pocket .Health dosen't cover add on only hospital cover .

No they didn't bulk bill.

All their bills were sent direct to CBHS and we didn't pay a cent.

brickies · Guru

Health cover don't cover gap for Doctors , Medicare pays the doctor 85 % of secule fee if doctor dosen't accept that amount you will have to pay the rest , So you you pay no extra the doctor must have bulk bill . If you know a health fund that covers the doctor gap fee let me know .

Bill B · Guru

brickies wrote:

Health cover don't cover gap for Doctors , Medicare pays the doctor 85 % of secule fee if doctor dosen't accept that amount you will have to pay the rest , So you you pay no extra the doctor must have bulk bill . If you know a health fund that covers the doctor gap fee let me know .

All I know is we weren't out of pocket.

Health fund printout shows all doctors, pathology, hospital accounts were sent direct to them, and all were paid in full.

Health fund also fully covered numerous home visits by a nurse & physio for a month after discharge from hospital.

brickies · Guru

Bill I have done a search on CBHS it is a closed health run by CBA for staff and former staff which offers benfiets other fund don't , So that great for the member of that fund but it not open to general public , In your case you are right .

Kaid · Guru

We had no option but to drop our Health Cover.
We have to live on my Husbands Pension now he has retired.
Scares the hell out of me.
I have to wait 5.5 yrs to get a Pension

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

If we all knew what was going to happen tomorrow, all would be well!

I thought I was fine up until I six months before I retired at 59, joined a gym & found I couldn't do some things. Went to my doctor, had X-rays taken was told to go & see an orthopaedic surgeon. Result - one total hip replacement, two years later, a partial replacement for the other hip.
If I had been on the public system, I would have been waiting much, much longer & in considerable pain. Each cost me $1,000 on top of what the private insurance paid ($25,000 each).

If you know your family's health history, make your decisions on that & your general well being.
Mind you there are health funds who charge more than they should - ask around amongst your friends, etc. As well some smaller funds that were "good", are being taken over by larger "no so good" crowds.

Warren

Leo · Senior Member

I was going to drop private cover. Was only just talking about it days before a major health problem was discovered. Glad I didn't get rid of the cover.

What worries me about the public system is that: 1. ultimately everything is subject to a team meeting where budget and other priorities are considered. As an old white bloke I might be more dispensable, "Why put so many resources into him where there are others waiting?"; and, 2. the staff surgeons may not be up to the added complexity that was found in my case when the surgery was underway. They might do what they can do economically and 'reasonably', close it up and send me down the other path.

I have reminded myself that insurance isn't something we should be wanting to get a return/payout from, for obvious reasons.

**I should add that near relatives who have suffered accidents, eg., from falls, have received excellent treatment from the public system and sometimes using private hospitals.

-- Edited by Leo on Monday 15th of January 2018 04:29:41 PM

Bass · Senior Member

Had private health, Colonosphy on the 1st Dec in private hospital on 6th Dec operation 7th Dec ( stage 3c ) I had to pay $ 500.00 and they then charged me for 2 meals, 4 1/2 hr op took almost 10 hours nobody bothered to talk to wife. Nurses to busy talking about their hols to see me ( day after op ) was crying in pain cleaner had to get them 3 metres away. 2 days after release things when pear shaped guess what no emerg dept so sent to public hospital and admitted straight away 2 more ops both public. IMO public hospital nurses, doctors better. $5000 and 2month wait for a port line in private vs $0 no wait in public. dumped private and have no regrets.
Bass

rayaroundoz · Senior Member

Thanks for all the feedback. Certainly a mixed bag on experiences - which just goes to show that peoples experiences are all different. I still have a bit of time up my sleeve so will review my current cover (HBF) and also "shop around" to what else is available. I have rejigged my budget and found scope to include if that is what I end up doing.

What I have learnt from the different comments is that perhaps I am looking at the whole insurance thing from the wrong perspective.

My initial view tendered to be that it was an expense I could do without. I wasn't getting any value or return out of it. But that isn't the point is it? The value is in not having to make a claim. We all consider insurance - be it car, house or whatever - a waste of money......until we need to claim.

I guess Bryan summed it up best "I'll have private health insurance as long as I can afford it. If or when cashflow gets very tight, then I'll ditch it."

And isnt that what the Government wants us to do? Those that can afford to do so and Medicare is there as a safety net for those that can't.

Cheers.