Who Has Private Health Cover For Those Earning Over $50,000 For Singles?

[Watermelon Man]

I earn over $50,000 (never before though) & am considering private health insurance cover through ISelect, etc. I know that if I don't take out private health cover, then I'll get slugged around $500+. Is it worth taking out a cheap policy just to avoid paying it to the ATO; as others have said that the basic health cover policy is really quite useless. How many others here have private health cover for those earning over $50,000 for singles & over $100,000 for families?? Do you think it's worth it? A mate of mine who used to be a nurse for around 10 years said he even didn't have it as he thought it was a big waste of money every year; as even if you had an accident; you'd still receive full treatment through the public system.

PS. I am only 30.

 

[chrispy]

WM as you get older you will find that your body gets things wrong with it and sometimes it is classified as "elective" surgery, or not urgent. I have no intention of waiting months for a bed in a hospital, if I am in pain I want to get rid of it asap.

There is also the option of being able to select your own surgeon and hospital. I had to have my gall bladder removed and was able to ask around and find the type of surgeon I wanted in the area.

Chris

 

[ani]

I'm in the not having group. I looked at it when it became an option and decided to self insure. Luckily, so far, all I have had is a major cancer scare and that was immediate public hospital and my taxes paid it.

I still wouldn't take out any cover. If it is elective I'll pay, otherwise I'll be in Emergency.

 

[Darren1968]

health cover

I have had private health cover since they first brought in the sliding scale price structure for the over 30's (which has recently been amended) so I guess that is around 7 or 8 years.

As I was in the military since the age of 18 before that I never had to worry about things like that.

I have always had the top level of cover and although I don't believe it is good value I know that one day I will probably be glad I have it.

I know that I don't have the discipline to self insure (ie save the equivalent of the monthly cost) so I just pay it.

I also make sure I visit the dentist twice a year for check ups and 'scale and cleans' and I also visit the chiropractor every 6 weeks for my neck.

At least I'm getting something for my money I guess.

Fingers crossed I'll never need to rely on the full extent of my cover.

 

[sailor]

I'm in the not having group. I looked at it when it became an option and decided to self insure.
I still wouldn't take out any cover. If it is elective I'll pay, otherwise I'll be in Emergency.

Ditto....I just can't see the value in this type of insurance.

 

[LynnH]

We have had private cover for more than 25 years - for much of that time, we have made only a few claims every year, mostly physio and optometry. But I know I'll be thankful for it one day.

Several years ago, I spent many hours over many months sitting with my dear dad in waiting rooms at a public hospital (he was battling terminal leukemia) observing the hopelessness and gloom of many of the patients as they waited for hours on end (3 or 4 hours was a short wait) to spend a few minutes with an oncologist (usually a different one at every visit). The staff were wonderful, but they could achieve little in a system which was grossly underfunded, overcrowded and desperately short of staff. I vowed then that I would never subject anyone in our family to the mercy of the public health system.

Cheers
LynnH

 

[Nards]

If you have any health probs - insure!!

I have also always been in the non-insured group, however have recently joined, because, as previously mentioned, my husband now has had to wait for extended periods on the public waiting lists for 2 different operations, and was in pain and incapacitated, for the duration of the list. My young brother (only 25) recently had to have back surgury, and was uninsured. He was in alot of pain and unable to work - he paid over $10,000 to have the op done privately and within a month, rather than waiting a year or more, and it costing a lot more in lost wages. As mentioned by others, in event of emergency or severe illness etc the public system is not bad, but it is the smaller elective things that catch you out. Self-insuring is a great idea, if you are disciplined enought to do it, and dont have something unusual or complicated go wrong - a few years ago it cost my husband over 15k for a short procedure and two days stay in a private hosp - thats 10yrs worth of insurance payments!!

Nadia

 

[jazzlobber]

for your peace or mind especially if you have a family and kids etc its worth it, i think also after you hit 30yrs, loading starts to apply so it get more and more expensive the older you get, they have been running adverts here in melbourne to that effect anyway.

i guess i'm lucky - company i work for pays for it.

 

[poppy]

Hubby and I both have private health insurance. The cost of the insurance is much less than the medicare surcharge would be for us, so there is no question whether or not to have it.

I just have the very basic private patient in a public hospital cover, very cheap, which I've never used but I believe I could use it if I needed elective surgery.

Hubby has a different policy with extras cover and gets money back for his glasses and so on.

If the cost of basic cover is less than the cost of the surcharge, then I see no reason why you would not have it.

 

[natmarie73]

I don't have it at the moment because I am still young. I did take it out when I was thirty, to avoid the extra surcharges but realised that even with dental and glasses, I wasn't getting any value out of it at all. For two dental checkups and associated fillings, X-rays etc plus contact lenses and a pair of new glasses every two years or so cost less for me to pay cash than it did in premiums, so I stopped.

I do have trauma and disability insurance though, so if I'm in an accident, or get cancer have a stroke, heart attack or whatever I'm covered that way. If I need it when I get older eg chronic back pain like my mum has, or need a new hip etc, then I'll take out private insurance then and pay the extra premiums for six months or so, which will be way less than paying 20 or 30 years worth of premiums in the meantime.

I don't mind paying the extra medicare payment either as I believe we need to support our public health system.

 

[Mamaof3]

we only have the standard excess but was looking at upgrading to hospital cover etc in the near future but i'm still confused myself wondering whether its really worth it...we'd probably end up paying thousands more than what we'd actually ever use but i guess thats the price you pay for peace of mind and the "what if" factor.

but it does bug me when i hear stories from friends who have the top private cover, they break their leg and go into a private hospital only to be wheeled over to the public hopsital to have the xrays and be treated and then wheeled back to the private side to recover (private and public hospital joined in case you're wondering!)?? I wonder what the benefit is in these situations...

sorry i'm probably not much help......... we've got another 5 years before we hit the 30 mark and will have to then make a decision otherwise get penalised for it.

 

[Xenia]

No Way!
I don't like throwing away money on speculations and fear based promotions from insurance companies.

Every time an issue comes up our GP always gives the option of public or private so everyone has a choice of hospital whether you have insurance or not!

We are now expecting a baby in the next couple of months, we are going public becauase I worked at that hospital as a research scientist and feel comfortable with the systems, however if we had chosen to go private the total cost would have been around $1500. It is a very small cost considering we could have been paying around that much per year so that an insurance company can cover it for us!

 

[Joe D]

IMO there are a few areas where paying the cost is worth it particularly if you are over 35 and most definitely if you have or are planning on starting a family .............

The economics may not always justify it, but first hand experience of the alternative with older relatives and personal SANF are big factors in my case.

Priorities for me are:

• Private Heath Insurance- (I can make clear choices on my family's medical needs)
• Income Protection (although now not applicable, it used to be important when I relied on salary)
• Landlord and Building Insurance (an absolute must)

Think about it ..... you wouldn't not insure your car ... so what do you consider is more important!

 

[neko]

We are in the uninsured group, we are 32 and have 2 kids, for the most part the public system, especially when it has been our kids needing emergency treatment, has been great. But 2 weeks ago my son, (he's 11) had a high speed accident on a motorbike (he races mx and has done since he was 4, and never had a crash as big as this) He dislocated his arm severely. We went to an out back hospital by ambulance where it was relocated by a great team of doctors(public). He then refered us to the public hospital near home for follow up treatment has the hospital was quite primitive and had no imaging equipment except for xrays. So I took my son to the local public hospital's fracture clinic. The doctor told us to wear a sling for 3 wks and then it should be fine. I asked could we get and MRI scan to see if there was any other damage. He said no need it would be fine. Not happy with this I went home and called around private shoulder surgeons and found one in Brisbane. In for the MRI 3 days later and then came the bad news. My son has torn his rotor cuff tendons from the bone, fractured the socket and torn some other bad bit. On Tuesday this week he is booked in for surgery to fix all of this in a private hospital. Left untreated as the public doctor would have liked my son would NEVER lift his arm away from his side again therefore living with a disability that is fixable. Now back to the reason for telling you guys all this is. With health insurance I have always said I would pay for whatever comes up myself. This operation is up to just under $7k and tomorrow they are calling me back with a price for the screws to go into the shoulder to hold it all together and they think they are around the $1k mark each ( we need 2). So at the end of the day my opinion has changed because not only is it close to $10k I have to find to pay for my sons op, it is also about being about to source out the best possible care you can get for your loved one or yourself. Will we be joining health insurance? YES! Not just because of the cost of surgery but also that we will have the power to demand the best possible care for whoever needs it in our family. The other thing is that you also get treated differently when you do want to pay the private hospital for the privilege of using them. "So you don't have insurance oh well then....". It has opened our eyes to a system that sometimes doesn't want to help even if you are going to pay(getting exact quotes from the private hospital has been an ordeal, you would think that no one has ever paid for there own treatment before). So in the end, I now feel that if my loved one is in need of what I think is more attention than they are getting then I have decided to pay for the choices I can have to get the best possible person working on them.

 

[Lucyinthesky]

Wow Neko, glad your son is getting sorted. $10,000 ouch! At first we joined because we have car insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, house insurance, landlords insurance and I guess the most important thing is our health. Have been in it for over 4 years now and have found it very worthwhile. I have heard horrendous stories of the public system here by family and friends and there is no way I am taking that chance with my kids. I am aware that the public system varies from state to state and my opinion on the WA system is extremely poor.

 

[Ruby]

As with most things there are always two sides.

We don’t have private cover and I’m thankful every day that we don’t. My son has been facing a major illness for the last couple of years, he’s fortunate to have the leading specialists in the field treating him and its all under the public system.

We would be WAY worse off under private cover.

I’ve always felt that if we need elective surgery, I’m more than happy to pay for it. If it’s a major problem the public system is usually the best option (although there are always exceptions as neko has pointed out) If you are in an accident you are usually taken to a public hospital.

I’ve done the private thing when having babies, I’ve also done the public thing. Hate to say I had better treatment under the public system.

It’s a personal choice and as usual you need to do what gives you that SANF.

 

[camakos]

Government tax charges for no insurance

Can anyone tell me what the government intends to charge you if you don't have private health insurance? I've been out of the country for several years and have no idea what this is about, any info would be great.
I've been living in the States for 2 years and all I can say is their health care system is a joke. We really don't want ours going down the way of privatization believe me! The insurance companies run the country here and keep its citizens broke and a slave to their premiums.

 

[kaf]

We are in the Medicare levy bracket and have gone private. After getting money back for dentist and chiro the cost of the private cover is close to what our surcharge would be. Also we have a very nice private hospital just at our doorstep so if one of us had to go in it would be very close and there would be great care. Guess keeping all our options open, especially as we are over 30, was the main reasoning behind it all.

kaf

 

[Programmer]

There appears to be some confusion (with some posts here) over private hospital insurance and extras.

The Medicare Levy (ML) and Medicare Levy Surchage (MLS) are differrent beasts. This post refers to the MLS.

The gov will hit those earning over 50k (single) and 100K (combined) with an extra 1% of taxable income if you do not have private HOSPITAL cover. Fringe benefits and dependents further impact whether or not you are liable for the MLS.

Private hospital cover does not generally cover extras such as optical, physio, chiro, dental etc. It simply means you become (if you elect this at the time) a PRIVATE patient in the public hospital system. This is what the gov wants...

The gov does not care whether you do/don't have extras cover. This is not taken into account in the assessment.

Whether you choose to have both (private hospital cover AND extras) is up to your situation. You could choose, for example, to take out BASIC hospital and self-insure for extras (as we do).

In considering what to do you should take into account your age, financial situation, general health, family etc. Further, you should be aware of the Lifetime health cover rules - as this will likely bite your bottom later in life if you don't plan.

In our case we always elect to be a public patient (even though we have private hosp cover). If you do not elect this (you'll be asked) you're likely to be hit with extras. It might seem ridiculous to have the cover and elect to go public but that's the system we've got. We had one child in the private and two in the public system. The private system cost us just over 2.5K (WITH private cover - and not the BASIC cover). The public system cost us about $20 for pharm each time. We also found the public system superior. The choice of Dr did not concern us. But that's us.

In the end, you should investigate all possible impacts and understand that you're needs/requirements might well change as your life changes.

Cheers,

 

[Petal]

Programmer has it all spot on. The main reason we are in private is as we are an older couple it is for those ops we may end up needing (eg hip replacement) i.e ops that can limit your mobility and have you in lots of daily pain, but as they are not life threatning and you are in the public system, you can wait years to have them done. We want a better quality of life than that so we want to get that stuff done sooner rather than later.

We also don't care what Dr does it we just don't want to wait for ever to get something done that could be quite painful.

Simple fact is, as you get older things start to break down a bit. In my opinion taking private health insurance is (mainly) for your older years and hence they did the "do it by 30 or you will start paying levies" This was because people were using the public system until they got into their 50's and then took up private when they really needed it which meant premuims went up for everyone to subsidise the older folk.

It's like other insurances to us. We can afford it and it gives us peace of mind.