Does anyone self insure?

After my wife recently had her wisdom teeth removed (ouch) in hospital (day proceedure), we are only now in the process of paying the bills. There are numerous bills, including the hospital admission, as well as a facility fee (which was news to me and which our insurer wouldn't cover), the surgeon and the anaesthetist's bill. I was wondering whether self-insuring would make sense?

I haven't really calculated the numbers properly, but wondered if anyone has used the money they were paying for their private health insurance cover to invest instead in either property or shares, with the intention of cashing these in (or drawing up the equity through loans, Loc's etc) and using that money in times of need?? In our case, we would be in a position to initiate the plan now, without having to wait for the new investment (property or shares), to grow in value.

Just a rough idea, and may not really be feasible or worth the risk. My wife and I currently have top hospital cover with cover for extras. We are supposed to be well insured, but when something like a facility fee crops up which isn't included by our insurer, I sometimes wonder if there is a better alternative??

Look forward to reading your replies - pro's and con's.

Regards Jason.
 
There was a time when, as a young, healthy individual or family it might have made sense to self insure. I know people who have done so (simply keeping the money in an interest bearing account) and they had done quite well in that their accruals exceeded their medical expenditure.
However, I think the tax implications are designed to make it uneconomical to self insure.
I haven't run the numbers, but it sure looks that way from an overview of the situation.
 
if your family income is more than 150k (or is it 180 now?) you might as well have an insurance policy, otherwise you'll pay about same amount in taxes

other than that, self insurance in most cases is more economical
 
As suggested by others, the huge penalties when your income exceeds a certain level make it more expensive to self-insure. But perhaps you can walk the same "middle road" that we do. We have the absolute minimum private hospital cover to prevent us having to pay the (higher) tax penalties if we don't have private cover, and self-insure for extras.

It's still more expensive to go to hospital with private health cover than if you're public, but I don't want to have to wait long periods for necessary surgery. For example, I had extremely painful sinuses last year, with a fungal infection not treatable with medication (almost certainly picked up after our PPOR flooded :rolleyes:), which required surgery. It would have taken me over 8 months to get it done in the public system. In the private system, I had it done in two weeks. :cool:

I'm trying to remember to be grateful as the bills continue to flow in...
 
My mother just spent three months in three different private hospitals. I don't even want to think about how different things would have been had she not had private insurance.

I am thinking of looking into how ozperp does things. We don't use a lot of "extras" with chiropractic being one I do use regularly, and two of us needing glasses. I plan on looking at dropping the extra cover, but will check very carefully to see whether we benefit enough or not.

I would NEVER want to try to self-insure for hospital care. My aunt looked like needing a hip replacement and, not being privately insured, was facing a HUGE bill to go privately, or waiting in pain for a long, long time in the public system.

I think it is like trying to self-fund house insurance. It is okay if all you have to pay yourself is a broken shower recess, but if the place burns down, you are stuffed.
 
I basically do the same as Ozperp.

I have medium Hospital cover and pay for the first $300. I found the additional cost for extras was not worthwhile in my case. I had major surgery and was in a fantastic private hospital for 8 days. The total gap cost was $1,000, that included the surgeon, everything.

I am in the higher tax bracket, so I would have to pay the additional tax anyway. I pay around $85 a month in premium, which is great peace of mind.

Chris
 
I have medium Hospital cover.

I've got "Young Singles Cover" with Mutual Community.
Well, at least I've got one out of the two :D
$75 a month and it covers everything, inc extras, physio, overseas travel innoculations etc.
Last dentist visit I didn't pay anything out of pocket.
 
Like Ozperp, we have Hospital only cover. We found that unless you went to the Fund's "own" Dentist or Optom. we had to fork out extra $. So we self insure and save loads.

Unfortunately as we are getting old..er, we have had to up the ante with the Hospital cover. We were on basic and max excess, now top of the range Hospital. Never know if we need a knee/hip replacement, or if the old ticker packs it in, I can guarantee there won't be any obstetrics needed. ;)

Mind you, 2 lots of braces for the kids in the next 2 years will set us back an IP deposit. Looking at the maximum lifetime amounts claimable, we would have been up for a lot of $ anyway.

Sunshine
 
semi-self insure.

house, contents, car - fully insured.

dental / GP / medical - we have HBF cover, but it's minimal. plus my BIL is a GP so we get bulk billed anyway.

come to think of it - what AM i paying health insurance for......?:confused:
 
We found that unless you went to the Fund's "own" Dentist or Optom. we had to fork out extra $. So we self insure and save loads.
Yes, we had top cover with extras for about 5 years, and I figured out we'd paid out $5K in extra premiums during that period, and I think we'd gotten back about $300, for a tiny contribution to about 6 dental visits and 2 physio sessions. Yeah, that makes economic sense! :rolleyes:

And the really silly thing is that my dentist asks whether I have health insurance. If I have extras, I pay - for example, can't recall actual figures - $200 and get only about $40 back from the health fund. If I don't have private health insurance, they only charge me $150. WTF? :confused:
 
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