Living the dream

Hi Blewyn, If you want to pm your email address I will try to help you.

Hi, I am an ex pat who now works for a private health insurer here in Australia. Private health insurance is a very personal choice depending on your circumstances and needs. If you have any questions feel free to ask away, I am more than happy to give you my knowledge ! :smile:

Hi, I am an ex pat who has been through the whole confusion of Private Health Insurance here in Australia who now works for a Health Insurance Company :-) If you have any questions please feel free to ask away !

Hi, I am an ex pat who now works for a health insurance company. Before I joined the industry I was totally baffled and was on a product that was not suitable. I just thought I would share some things that may help you. If you are on a Visa that stipulates that you have to have Private Health Insurance you are breaking your visa requirements if you do not take out Private Health Insurance. With regard to the Life Time Health Cover Loading - this is only applicable 12 months after you become entitled to Medicare and you HAVENT taken out hospital coverage and are over the age of 30 years old. So for example if you are 32 and have had Medicare for 12 months and no hospital cover then you would have a 4% loading on your policy. My advice is to lock in your age before you get hit with the levy ! The other thing to consider is tax. If you are a high earner and your taxable income is over $168000 for couples or $84000 for singles you will be taxed an additional % for not having hospital cover. Taking just the basic level of hospital coverage will alleviate this additional tax. With regards to dental coverage you can take a policy that would cover up to 90% of the cost of general dental treatment. Defiantly worth it in my opinion J I hope this helps. Feel free to ask me anything else.

I am an expat who now works for Bupa. All pre existing medical conditions have a 12 month wait period so taking out cover now wont help with your daughters pre exisiting condition. It would however protect you for any new conditions or accidents. I dont know if you know but you only have 12 months to take out private health insurance from the date of Medicare entitlement to ensure that you dont have the lifetime health cover loading applied to your policy when you do decide to take out cover. If you have any further questions please feel free to drop me an email on rachel.griggs@bupa.com.au