Petals Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 As I am getting my knee replaced very soon thought I would just give you a heads up of what it can cost you even with health insurance. My fund is covering the costs of my hospital stay and my prosthesis. Then we come to the medicare part, there are scheduled fees the docs etc charge in public hospitals which are fully covered under medicare, however in private hospitals they can charge a hefty fee on top of the medicare rebate. My out of pocket expenses for this operation will be over $3000. You can get insurance for the gap but its expensive as well hence we chose to pay the extra. Also noted in the Age today that prescription costs are rising in January and the co payment will be $35.40 a month for each prescription. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Wish you all the best for the knee replacement, mate.:yes: Cheers, Bobj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest VickyMel Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Thanks Petals that is useful to know. It is actually better than I thought it might be I am still trying to decide which Med Ins to take out as they all seem to have fine print somewhere and I am just not up with what it all means. I just keep looking at it then putting it to the bottom of the pile of things to do! I should just bite the bullet sign up and then we can change later if we want to. Good luck with the knee op. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest31881 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 The gap payment can be very high, The irony is that if you can or ar willing to wait for the public service, then it would be totally free, Having insurance can cut down on waiting times.but it can also be an expensive luxury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 The gap payment can be very high, The irony is that if you can or ar willing to wait for the public service, then it would be totally free, Having insurance can cut down on waiting times.but it can also be an expensive luxury. My oh is totally against the health insurance and we only took it out over a year ago for me. The main reason was getting the guy I wanted to do the operation, whereas in the public you do not get to choose. As I want and hope to be using the knee for quite a while I took the private option. Funnily enough I just got a bill for some pre op tests and jumped on the phone and told them I am a pensioner, so they said ignore. If you do not ask you do not get. If I have to have any more surgery done with the health insurance I will be choosing a surgeon who operates in a public hospital next time though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moirclan Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 you can put the gap aginst your tax with any other medical out of pocket expenses from the same tax year eg prescriptions, drs gaps chiro, optical etc after i think the first two grand you get 20% on the dollar not a lot but better than nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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