janlo Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I've always been sceptical of the heavy insurance advertising and paying for healthcare in general to be honest. My family have always gone to a bulk billing doctors, been sent for xrays even a very impressive MRI scan on my sons shoulder following a dislocation. Today we were told by the consultant that his shoulder needs to be operated on. They will call for him within a year. If we were paying private they would call for him within 3 weeks ! So there you have it, I'm currently re-thinking the private health cover issue. :nah: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I needed an operation last year - saw the specialist on the Monday and had it done on the Friday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 I've always been sceptical of the heavy insurance advertising and paying for healthcare in general to be honest. My family have always gone to a bulk billing doctors, been sent for xrays even a very impressive MRI scan on my sons shoulder following a dislocation. Today we were told by the consultant that his shoulder needs to be operated on. They will call for him within a year. If we were paying private they would call for him within 3 weeks ! So there you have it, I'm currently re-thinking the private health cover issue. :nah: You would then find that despite the health cover, you end up paying $1000-1500 out of your own pocket for it. You have to pay to et the referral to the consultant; pay to see the consultant; pay the excess; pay the gap; pay for the anaesthetist; pay for the medication; pay for the follow up; pay for the physio.I had a hernia done three weeks ago on insurance and the bills are still coming in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Agree with @Quinkla when we lived in Melbourne I had all my treatment on the public system. When we moved to Cairns we were advised that there wasn't the specialists available here to treat me and I would need to travel to Brisbane. I was advised to go private which I did. There are good and bad points. Positive: Seen within a few days Operations when you want Treatment can be delayed to suit you Choice of surgeon/specialist - My op 20 months ago was a very risky op, not many surgeons have performed them so I chose a great surgeon in Sydney. Negatives: Gap fees - They can be quite high Sometimes you have to pay the money then claim it back If you take out a policy now you will need to wait 12 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix16 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 I do agree with all comments above, if you go private you need to ensure your consultant has an agreement with your health provider or the GAP can be quite excessive, going private you have to factor in that lots of things aren't covered, we were lucky, hubby had a disc replacement in his neck, I'd assumed a few $ks gap in the budget but the swiftness of the process meant more to us, however, fortunately, the consultant was actually affiliated with our health provider although I didn't check this first but all surgical costs were covered 100%. We got quite a few miscellaneous bills through after, possibly $250 but it's irritating to get a bill for surgical stockings etc!!! I meanwhile had surgery when on a 457 so our insurance company covered everything but the total GAP costs would have been around $2500 after consultant and anaethetist and it was on this experience I assumed a significant gap for hubby's op. private is great for most things but you do ha pave to ask the financial questions up front or you could get a shock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james784 Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 We got private health insurance about 4 years ago. Reason we did was because we were almost 30 and we were in the high income earning bracket. We were getting slugged with the levy so we figured we may as well put the money we were paying on the levy into something we'd get something back for. Fast forward 4 years and we now wouldn't be getting charged a levy at all if we dropped our PHC. We have chosen not to drop it though because:- 1. if we pull out now that we are over 30, when/if we do re-join we will get penalised for being over 30. 2. it IS peace of mind. If anything happens with the kids or us that is not urgent (eg grommets, tonsils etc) ... but needs doing ... private health cover means you can get it done almost straight away for the cost of the excess and avoid sitting in long public waiting list queues 3. Our hospital/extras cover costs us about $220/mth. Our kids have speech therapy every fortnight at a cost of $65/session. We get $60 back out of each session from PHC, which means we are getting back more a month at the moment than we are paying to have PHC. 4. Dental work is so expensive, yet teeth are so important. I love not having cost as an excuse to keep our preventative checks on our teeth up, with our cover preventative checks cost virtually nothing. And when I needed two fillings my out of pocket cost was really low compared to what it would have cost without PHC So the above reasons are ours for keeping our cover despite not technically 'needing it' for tax incentive reasons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Que Sera Sera Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 I had an op last year and was advised 2 weeks wait public and 1 week private. I went public so there were no shocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelensvaleHoward Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 I had an operation on my right elbow and on the public system my wait time was about 3 months I'm waiting to see a specialist about my neck on the public system and so far been waiting for 2 years I'm seeing someone private at $100 a time and he's helping me lots and trying to avoid surgery I'm haing injections again in Feb and I'll be out of pocket about $400 for both lots done over 2 weeks None of this would be covered under private I'll prolly get in to see a specialist on the public just in time to book in for surgery lol It is swings and rounds abouts for sure But I'll be looking at private insurance soon as our joint income will make it more beneficial to have it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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