Medical levy

[WelderGuy5]

Hey peeps

1.Was thinking is it good to have medical insurance policy side by side Medicare. 

If so which policy is good any recommendations please.

 

2. Is there any benefit like exemption in medical levy if one has medical insurance!!

 

TIA

[Jon the Hat]

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Edited November 17, 2020 by Jon the Hat

[Jon the Hat]

Now this has moved from Ask Vista;

There is indeed a medicare levy benefit to having private health insurance providing that 1) you earn over the threshold ($180k per family) and 2) the policy meets the minimum requirements.  Effectively there is a medicare levy surcharge applied if you earn over that and don't claim the exemption for having the insurance.

[Jon the Hat]

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/medicare-levy/medicare-levy-surcharge/

 

[Skani]

On 17/11/2020 at 19:38, WelderGuy5 said:

Hey peeps

1.Was thinking is it good to have medical insurance policy side by side Medicare. 

If so which policy is good any recommendations please.

 

2. Is there any benefit like exemption in medical levy if one has medical insurance!!

 

As mentioned above, if you earn above a certain salary and don't have private hospital insurance you will be taxed a medical levy surcharge.  The relevant salary is around $90,000 for a single person, 180,000 for a couple.  

If your salary is under these amounts you may not consider private health insurance to be necessary.  It does depend on your age, health status and location ie. good access to the public hospital resources if you do need them.

Separate ambulance cover may be required - depending on the state in which you are living.

This is an overview/explainer of the private health system:  https://moneysmart.gov.au/health-insurance

As to choice of policy:  there are a squillion different policies available in Oz and they can also vary from state to state.

This site has a comparison tool which can be tailored to your specific situation:

https://www.canstar.com.au/health-insurance/2019-health-insurance-star-ratings/