hello
i’m thinking about getting privately insured coz my partner and i are planning a baby soon. Could anyone recommend a good company? NRMA, HCH, MEDIBANK…i’ve got too many choices and don’t have the time to make a line-to-line comparison.
thanks a bunch
KENHum strange investment question . . .I give it a shot.
I use to have NIB but the benefits were rather low (1988 – 90) so I switched to HCF. I have a high Hospital cover and all the “ancillaries” that is dental, physio and the likes. Pay some $80 per F/N. Lately HCF has been trimming the benefits every year a bit and NIB has increased theirs. I have no complaints from HCF they pay every time I have a dentist bill.
Still, I need to change a bridge that costed 10 years ago 1800, with 700 paid for by HCF, the same bridge now costs 3500 and HCF pays 800 and the F/N bill 10 years ago was around $30. [confused2]Remeber that for maternity you will have a long waitign period, certainly more than 9 months.
May God bless you
and prosper you.
MarcConfirmation on the baby front. You must have cover for at least 9 months prior to getting pregnant to be eligible for most private health cover.
I was told that when I recently came back into the country and had to start my policy up again. Luckily mine was suspended so Cremin and I didn’t have to do the waiting game again… Phew….
Goo dluck with baby plans. Hopefully we shall be thinking along those lines soon….(Let’s hope Cremin reads this one…)
Good luck.
Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Ken
Why do you need private insurance to have a baby?
I’ve had two on the public system (partially due to health issues) and I have no complaints at all.
Various friends have had them at private hospitals with private cover, and have been gobsmacked by the bills they still received, even after all those premiums.
Maybe it’s nice to have your own room etc, but in the end, it’s a lot of money for a few days of comfort.
Plus the choosing your own doctor thing is overrated as well in my opinion, doctors only show up for the last little bit, other than that it’s the midwives who look after you.Keep smiling
Felicity
We have two kids on public – at the birth centre in the really big tub.
Private rooms & no obnoxious doctors, just experienced midwifes & nurses.
The only thing they didn’t provide was the baby.
Cost us nothing (and has been amply covered by the amount we pay to medicare)
Private health care is about profit, not necessarily a better experience!
Cheers,
Aceyducey
I have had 4 children, one was born in public hospital as private, and the gap was around $2,000.
One born in private hospital as a private patient gap around $1,500
2 were born as public patients in birthing centre in a public hospital, no gap, but the best care and service out of the lot.
My opinion Birthing centres are the best and highly recommend them.
Regards Bear
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DONT MISS OUT!!!!!Hi,
I used to work for Medibank Private and there is a 12 month waiting period with them on maternity. IMHO private health insurance is only worth it if you use it to your advantage. This means ancillaries. Use all your limits every year or you are ripping yourself off.
If you have the discipline put the $100 or so it costs per month to have hospital and extras cover into a high interest account and save it for the rainy day.
I had both my children in public hospitals and definitely recommend them. Mostly the staff and service is the same as if you were in private only the accomodation is different. Also recently our son was very sick. He had to have a lot of treatment and if we were privately insured we would have had a huge gap to pay ourselves. As such we are only medicare people and paid nothing. We did not have to wait because it was not elective by any means.
In the end it all comes down to what you are comfortable paying into a fund you may never need to use. They are not cheap and I fear the premiums will only rise in the future.
Good Luck with your choice,
Rachel.[biggrin]
Be aware that any complications in private cover could cost you dearly. A ceasarian and a distressed baby for us meant a gap of over $4000. This would have been nothing if we had been public. Also be aware that even a panadol in a private hospital would be costed out, add that to antibiotics, dressings, cannulas etc etc and the cost can be huge (this was on top hospital cover). I wouldnt do this again and would have my baby public. Put the money to better use.
Cheers[hair2]Originally posted by Rachel77:I used to work for Medibank Private and there is a 12 month waiting period with them on maternity.
Hang on a minute…12 month wait for maternity – 8 1/2 – 9 months to have a baby….
There’s something a bit screwy with these figures.
Does it mean that on private health cover mums have to carry the baby for 3 months longer or not get a spot?
Cheers,
Aceyducey
No, you have the insurance for 12 months to make sure you are paying your way, otherwise you join, have the baby and leave and the rest of us who stay in it have paid for your treatment.
Ok, looking at it a different way, do you insure your houses, your contents, your cars? Yes, and do you use the policy every year to “make sure you get your money’s worth”? I hope not, otherwise you are having a lot of accidents, thefts etc.
Health insurance is the same, you don’t have it to use it, you have it “just in case”, which is the same as all your other insurances, you have them “just in case”.
Having private health insurance gave us choices. We had our first child in a public hospital even though we had private health insurance (so it didn’t cost us a cent), however, when it was found that she had a cleft lip and palate, we had the choice to go public and wait 6 months for the operation that we were advised she should have at 3 months of age to achieve “best results” or we could go private and have the op at three months of age. Yes, we chose private for that op. We wanted her to have the op at the time that the “public” system told us was best, they just couldn’t do it at that time due to waiting lists and it wasn’t considered “life threatening”.
So, basically, I feel the peace of mind to have “choices” was well worthwhile. I agree I’ve spent more in health insurance than we’ve ever used. But I’ve also spent more in car insurance than I’ve ever used as well and I hope that we never have to use the full value of either, but you never know….
PK
Originally posted by PurpleKiss:No, you have the insurance for 12 months to make sure you are paying your way, otherwise you join, have the baby and leave and the rest of us who stay in it have paid for your treatment.
Ok, looking at it a different way, do you insure your houses, your contents, your cars? Yes, and do you use the policy every year to “make sure you get your money’s worth”? I hope not, otherwise you are having a lot of accidents, thefts etc.
PK,
If I insure my house as soon as I have an interest in it (on exchange) then a week later it burns down I expect to be compensated…
If I join a private health service & then find out a month later than my partner is pregnant I’d expect to be covered.
It’s the risk the insurance company takes. That’s their job!
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Bit different there Acey.
The house scenario is totally out of your control and the insurance companies recognise that. If it was deliberate they would not pay etc etc.
With the health insurance for a baby, it is totally in your control (or about 99.9% depending on what birth control you are using). I agree with Purplekiss, that’s the way it should be. It is just the same as when you are applying for private cover you have to declare any current illness/injuries. If you have an existing injury and you were not previously covered on private HI, why should you immediately get your bills paid for when you join up. Imagine premiums then if you could do that.
‘Eat rich food, barbeque a yuppie’ [greedy]
Hi Ken,
I’m due to have my first baby in November and am going to go private, as I prefer to have the continuity of care provided by seeing the one obstetrician throughout the pregnancy.
One thing you should be aware of – PI will cover you for most of your hospital costs, but as I have recently discovered, it rarely covers the fees for your private doctor. Due to recent issues with medical indemnity insurance, obstetricians are now charging around $2000 – 4000 extra ABOVE the medicare rebate for delivery (which BTW is a paltry $442!). The fee range I’ve quoted varies a little from state to state, so confirm this for your area. You can claim some of this back on tax, but it is still a huge expense when you are already budgeting for time off work after the birth. The annoying thing is, if you don’t have an obstetrician, you can’t book into a private hospital – so, in most cases, unless you can find a fund that has complete gap cover for pregnancy, there will still be substantial cost involved if you choose to book in as a private patient at either a private or public hospital.
However, despite the above, I would recommend that if you are thinking about having kids, it isn’t a bad time to start joining a fund anyway, so that you are prepared for any event that springs on you once you have one or more of them bouncing around.
All the best,
AnastasiaNo one has raised this issue yet but does anyone know what happens in your tax return if you don’t have private insurance? I understood that you were charged more for the medicare levy if you do not have private insurance and that this varies depending on the coverage you have. We only have ancillary cover with MBF which costs us about $40 per fortnight and I’m wondering if we are charged extra in the medicare levy because we don’t have FULL private insurance. Anyone know how it works?
Thanks
ShirleyIf you have the discipline put the $100 or so it costs per month to have hospital and extras cover into a high interest account and save it for the rainy day
i agree, save the money and put it where it will work for you, should you have a big hospital bill, then just pull out what you need. thats all i do!
shaunLead, Follow or get out of the bloody way
Hi guys,
Interesting topic and a coincidence considering I only had a major operation 4 weeks ago….
Here’s my story….
Have had four kids,
2 private hosp and 2 public hospital
All four were born under the SAME private doctor
(When I didn’t have insurance, he bulked billed for all my pre natal checkups)
O.K…. so he wasn’t “allowed” to deliver my last 2 kids… but he didn’t make it one of the “private” ones anyway!! Which he got paid for!
I could tell many stories about the cost difference, but I will stick to one.Child no.2 had to be induced (this was on private cover) so I am sent down to the chemist, in the hospital, to buy the gel that is required….I remmember it cost $109, (eleven years ago mind you), I took the gel up to my doctor, he OPENS it then checks me out and decides I need a C section…so I don’t need the gel, but he’d opened it …so no refund. To top it all off, the next day I’m speaking to a public patient and she got the gel for free!
Enough of the kids, I recent paid for my own operation which was considered a “major”
Cost me $2200 out of pocket.
That includes 3 days in private hospital, private room.
All the private doctor fees and those of his helpers.
All pathology and medication.
I personally prefer to pay my own way as the need arrises.
Hope I didn’t bore you all too much…or was it too much information!
Cheers,
Sue [biggrin]“Be careful not to step on the flowers when you’re reaching for the stars”
Not boring at all diclem – all of these stories have amazed me. Most of what I have read in an indication that the public system is better. And we do pay for it in the medicare levy, so it’s still user pays. I remember a few years ago when Howard was trying to make people panic and get private health insurance0- really, it was a way to make people opt out of the public system, so that the govt could increasingly subsidise the private system. Ands it seems from what many of you have written, that it is hugely expensive (gap payments etc) to be in the private system.
I think if people supported the public health system more, then it would be better funded and the govt would have to take it more seriously, instead of slagging it off and bankrupting it and forcing people to take out private care.
kay henry
Shirley,
Back to the tax breaks, you claim 30% of the amount paid, however I think it relates to the hospital cover and not the ancillaries. Also, you have a choice of claiming it as reduced payments during the year or on your tax return. Your insurer would be able to tell you whether you are already paying the reduced payments, they also send you a statement at the end of the finacial year that has all the information you need for your tax return.
The second part is the increased medicare levy if you earn over a certian amount and don’t have private health cover. It’s a fairly high amount before you are charged and doesn’t affect the average income earner, but if you are on high salaries then give your insurer a call and check it out with them.
Regards
PKI have also found that if you are willing to pay cash upfront for medical services the price gets droped a reasonable amount. Saves on paper work etc chasing up the moneys.
My advice save the money payed to the insurance medical benefit and pay cash when needed, other wise just use a public system when u feel comfortable to do so.
Regards Bear
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DONT MISS OUT!!!!!Hi Kay, Bear and all,
I see nothing wrong with the public system. (Apart from the horrible waiting lists of course)
Other than that, I can’t find a fault.
I agree totally with Bear, in that a doctor will drop his price for cash. This happened with my op and I am quite suprised that it happens.
One thing I didn’t mention is that when I checked in for my stay at private hospital, I had to pay for 5 nights upfront. Apparently your doctor has to tell the hosp. what your maximum stay will likely be.
I only stayed 2 nights, and was refunded the difference within two weeks…when you’re paying by the day, you get well fast!
Hope you are, and remain, well
Sue [rolleyesanim]“Be careful not to step on the flowers when you’re reaching for the stars”
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