Private health insurance

[Beffers 241]

Hi. 

Anybody have any recommendations about private health insurance providers? Moving to Melbourne and will need to get this sorted at some point!

Thanks ? 

[Guest]

We are with Commonwealth but it's probably not a good package for most.

I'd not rush into it. Make sure you have ambulance cover but then you've a year before the lifetime loading kicks in. We didn't get any till 10-11 months in and my year was almost up. Tbh we've never really used it and have already scaled down the cover because of he price. We prefer to have private over the extra Medicare loading however. 

[Skani 5,287]

There's a zillion health insurance alternatives to choose from.  This is a useful tool for filtering options relevant to your situation (state, age, family situation, type of cover etc.)

https://www.canstar.com.au/health-insurance/

[The Pom Queen 5,788]

Our first 7 years here we didn't use it and only took it out when we moved to Cairns because there weren't the facilities there I needed. Private insurance gave me the option to choose the best surgeons and travel interstate for operations. We are with BUPA and although not cheap we have had our money back a thousand times over.

[fosseboy 30]

Don't wait too long when you arrive as not only will you lose the lifetime loading (which is a Government subsidy based on age and well worth getting as it goes on every year)  but the waiting period for benefit can be from 2 months to 12 months......we joined Medibank and they agreed to waive the 2 month waiting period (good job as we unexpectedly needed an ambulance within the 2 months). You have 12 months to avoid the loading but returning Aussies only have 6 months.

Ambulances are expensive btw - ours are $900 for a trip to hospital 7kms away so get that cover at least (about $100 pa).

[Beffers 241]

3 hours ago, fosseboy said:

Don't wait too long when you arrive as not only will you lose the lifetime loading (which is a Government subsidy based on age and well worth getting as it goes on every year)  but the waiting period for benefit can be from 2 months to 12 months......we joined Medibank and they agreed to waive the 2 month waiting period (good job as we unexpectedly needed an ambulance within the 2 months). You have 12 months to avoid the loading but returning Aussies only have 6 months.

Ambulances are expensive btw - ours are $900 for a trip to hospital 7kms away so get that cover at least (about $100 pa).

Thank you, that's really helpful. Esp about the ambulance cover! 

[doubter 154]

4 hours ago, fosseboy said:

Don't wait too long when you arrive as not only will you lose the lifetime loading (which is a Government subsidy based on age and well worth getting as it goes on every year)  but the waiting period for benefit can be from 2 months to 12 months......we joined Medibank and they agreed to waive the 2 month waiting period (good job as we unexpectedly needed an ambulance within the 2 months). You have 12 months to avoid the loading but returning Aussies only have 6 months.

Ambulances are expensive btw - ours are $900 for a trip to hospital 7kms away so get that cover at least (about $100 pa).

So if you return after a few years away the lifetime loading starts again and you have 6 months as a PR?

[Petals 4,258]

On 09/04/2017 at 10:28 PM, doubter said:

So if you return after a few years away the lifetime loading starts again and you have 6 months as a PR?

However if you do not use your health insurance count up the cash you spend over the years, its a lot more than waiting until you actually need the private system i e older and needing joints etc.   We dropped ours for along time and we did not take up the lifetime system when it came in, why because we felt as though a gun was over our head and we did not like the way it was done.   Anyway I took out health insurance when I needed my knee replaced and I have it now and I have to pay the loading but goodness me its a drop in the ocean to what we would have paid, paying in case.   

 

If you are hurt at work or in a car you are covered anyway, if you have an emergency, they do not take you to a private hospital they take you to a public one.   Private likes us oldies, not much trouble.   If we have a really serious problem in a private hospital they move us to the public.  They did that to my Dad, one day in private had an op and they said we cannot look after you here, you have to in the public hospital.   He did and my mum got bills for gap fees for months from the public hospital.

 

[doubter 154]

7 hours ago, Petals said:

However if you do not use your health insurance count up the cash you spend over the years, its a lot more than waiting until you actually need the private system i e older and needing joints etc.   We dropped ours for along time and we did not take up the lifetime system when it came in, why because we felt as though a gun was over our head and we did not like the way it was done.   Anyway I took out health insurance when I needed my knee replaced and I have it now and I have to pay the loading but goodness me its a drop in the ocean to what we would have paid, paying in case.   

 

If you are hurt at work or in a car you are covered anyway, if you have an emergency, they do not take you to a private hospital they take you to a public one.   Private likes us oldies, not much trouble.   If we have a really serious problem in a private hospital they move us to the public.  They did that to my Dad, one day in private had an op and they said we cannot look after you here, you have to in the public hospital.   He did and my mum got bills for gap fees for months from the public hospital.

 

I did that loading calculator thing and if I go back as PR I still have 12 months before lifetime loading starts, if I did it right.

[Collie 1,872]

Yes but depending on your salary, if you are a mid to high earner, you will end up paying an additional medicare levy if you don not have private health insurance (I think it is 1% but may be 1.5%).

So depending on your circumstances, you will either pay the premium or additional tax.

 

[Petals 4,258]

12 hours ago, Collie said:

Yes but depending on your salary, if you are a mid to high earner, you will end up paying an additional medicare levy if you don not have private health insurance (I think it is 1% but may be 1.5%).

So depending on your circumstances, you will either pay the premium or additional tax.

 

We paid the higher levy it was still cheaper that way.    Check on that because they have or are changing it now so that people would stop taking out junk health care and using the public system.

[ali 16,478]

We're with medibank - my hubby says what he likes about them is that they still have shops with 'real' people in them and you don't have to go via a call centre.  Our daughter is 22 and was taken off our insurance, as she's still a full time student he just popped into the office and it was all sorted in 5 mins