So it's that time of the year again where annual health insurance premiums go up. Just out of interest how much do you pay for your private health cover? We have family cover (no extras) with HIF and we pay $158 per month.
How Much Do You Pay for Your Health Insurance?
pandabear on 21/04/2017 - 10:33
Comments
Wow that is really cheap! Is that per month or fortnight?
Its extras cover, not hospital cover.
https://www.hcf.com.au/insurance/health/get-a-quote/silver-p…No hospital cover is cheap, but its good to have extras cover :)
What boomramada said. It's just for extras, no hospital.
I weighed up the pros and cons of hospital cover and didn't see it benefiting me as yet. Will probably change as I get older.
Single, no kids
Ahhh those were the days
This level of coverage would also incur the Medicare Levy Surcharge at tax time, depending on income. So others reading this, be careful of extras-only cover, you can end up paying thousands more in tax.
The ATO does not recognise extras cover as an appropriate level of insurance for taxation purposes. You must have hospital cover and you also must have a low excess amount, which will force higher premiums. Numbers are on the ATO's website.
I was contacted by the ATO and basically accused of fraud because I was thrifty with my health insurance costs. And I already had the required hospital cover, but it was not good enough for the ATO. I had my excess high on my policy because I haven't been sick in 30 years and I have little to no probability of going to hospital, so I wanted to pay lower premiums. ATO said that was not good enough, I have to pay more for my premiums by having lower excess or I will be busted if I put my health insurance on my tax return to not get slugged the Medicare Levy Surcharge. They told me I would be fined, charged the Medicare Levy Surcharge and be charged interest if I kept chosing cheaper insurance and putting it on my tax return. I had no idea I was doing anything wrong at the time. So now I pay ~$65 per month instead of ~$40, only because I was forced to by the ATO.
Which hospital cover that costs you only $65 per month?
Try Frank Health Insurance
The price depends a lot on what you want covered. Every time I look I get quotes on what I'd want, they're over $3k a year. No way!
BUPA
family
hospital plus extras $330 per month
we only got extras because all 3 children are having braces and the extra for extras was worth it
Does premium go up as you claim every year?
no idea if claims affect premiums. they only 'seem' to rise by the publicly quoted figures on a yearly basis.
Mine is $1,400 every 6 months with Medibank for single person, used to be $1,000 few years ago, the increase is definitely much faster than inflation and pay increase.
$2000 HCF Mid Hospital no extras
wife and 1 kid.
It should have been $2200 but I managed to get a $200 credit from HCF.
Police health (sure cover extras)
$77 per fortnight (1 couple)
This is very similar to what we were paying under teachers health fund before we added pregnancy.
Pregnancy is another debate, but I wasn't going to deny my wife the opportunity to experience it for herself when we are doing alright with $$$ at the moment.
Teachers health was also much cheaper when I went to check our current rate after it going up 2 years in a row. Still came out ahead by a minimum $40/m.
This was hospital plus extras (optical and dental), no excess.
Wife had a hernia removed recently, $180 gap to the anaesthetist and the other $3k+ was covered.
Definitely suss out industry funds if you have someone that can refer you.
Thanks for the advice, my monthly didnt go up significantly. When you added pregnancy (hospital covers) how much more was your payment?
I will definitely look into industry funds
Started at $142/m for a couple with above extras. It's gone up to $180/m and now with pregnancy, $356/m.
All no excess.
When it hit $180/m, I shopped around and all the others were up around $220+/m so we stayed with teachers health.
Also remember, different incomes get different rebates automatically factored into your rate (if you choose to claim that up front).
2% of my taxable income.
So a minimum of $3600 per year then, coz everyone on OzBargain is on $180k+
I pay $2720 per year with MBP for a family of 4 with hospital + extras
There are many different levels of both hospital and extras covers, so it is going to be very hard to compare just by how much people are paying.
you are referring to wrong site, whirlpool everyone $180k+
I found Australian Unity to have better prices than Medibank and BUPA, but AU's main attraction for us was that they don't require an excess to be paid for Day Hospital procedures.
If you transfer or sign up they give you a $100 gift card (single) and if you quote my membership (80807414 ) as a referee, I'll share mine with you too.I was with MBP and paying $430.00 per month, decided t shop around this year, now with GMHBA, better Extras cover, and Hospital now includes radiology again (Thanks for nothing MBP) for 386 per month.
I was with GMHBA and they were excellent. But now with Qld Country Health, who are slightly more expensive $386 to $401 per month but much better extras cover refunds. Exclusions for pregnancy/mental disorders for both.
Australian Unity, $1200/year for single Bronze Hospital with Bronze Extras
Fairly basic cover, but includes $300 for major dental (useful for me), and free membership of smile https://www.smile.com.au which gives discounted dental treatment through member dentists.
When I joined them in March last year, iSelect also gave me a bonus $300 EFTPOS card. Cost then was $900 (ie $1200-$300 EFTPOS card). Renewal this year was also about $1200.Bronze Hospital - https://www.australianunity.com.au/health-insurance/~/media/…
Bronze Extras - https://www.australianunity.com.au/health-insurance/~/media/…Family of 2 adults and 3 teenaged kids. Defence Health hospital + extras $386 per month.
OK, I LOVE THESE THREADS ~ HERE IS THE OZB INFO YOU NEED!
if you dont pay the tax/levy then you need extras and not hospital and here is a spreadsheet to the few good value extras left
https://goo.gl/N2h00hIf you need hospital for tax or health reasons then PEOPLECARE have public hospital, no extra's otherwise use the gov website to find what suits you here https://goo.gl/Rw3PcI
remember, private means just that as you may have out of pockets in addition to any GAP, public is a bloody good option for most until you reach your 60s
So best to have cheap basic hospital until then to avoid the lifetime health loading of 2% for every year over 30
RULES: 1) HOSPITAL AND EXTRAS ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, YOU CAN HAVE EACH WITH A DIFFERENT PROVIDER FOR BEST VALUE AND YOU CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE EXTRAS (IF THAT MAKES SENCE FOR YOU AS YOUR A HIGH USER)
RUKE2: MOST EXTRAS PLANS ARE NOT WORTH IT ANY MORE, A FEW ARE AS THEY GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU PAY BACK ~ THESE GEMS ARE RECOMENDED TO EVERYONE IRRSEPECTIVE OF HOSPITAL COVER!
RULE3: IF YOUR NOT GETTING VALUE, MOVE FUND, PLAN OR PROVIDER < ITS THE OZBARGIAN WAY!I just got the letter about being over 31 and I need to take out insurnace to avoid costs etc I must admt it was confusing a little and these things are normally pretty straight forward.
My family is very pro-private health however my wife and I are not. Always causes some heated discussion.
We are both very active and healthy at this stage 31 & 30 yrs of age - Train 6 days/week, no current conditions we know of and no kids planned etc
Income - We both earn under around $78k Gross
Thanks for your post, time to do some research.
Pay the minimum amount to avoid the govt surcharge whilst reaping the rewards of ancillary/extras cover
So what plan do you recommend for that?
for extras ahm back 60
for hospotal either peoplecare public or one of the gmhba hospital options ~ if your going private make sure it has cardiac as this is the main reason to have it!
your only alive as long as it works after all!
Just switched to $245 a month for Hospital and Extras for family. The extras cover is 'flex' so can be used however instead of being set amounts for each item, through ahm, so hopefully this will prove more beneficial than what we had.
It's called your savings account.
If you're not usually in and out of the doctors, don't waste your money.
Be your own insurance.
but you will need to pay the Medicare levy surcharge, which means you may have to pay the same amount at tax time so why not get insurance anyway?
That's true. I'm mostly just talking about the people who don't pay that but think it's a necessity.
But that works out more expensive for me due to tax for not holding private health. Not very clever advice
Well over $250 per month for a couple with HBF. Top cover but still have out of pocket expenses.
Stuck wondering wether to cancel or continue.
We recently spent $10,500 for major dental surgery in Phuket for both of us - brilliant treatment, very professional. In Australia the cost was costed at $ 40,000. HBF would not cover some treatments ( such as teeth whitening) & only cover a percentage of the rest.
So instead we had a 3 week holiday in Phuket ( Hotel found cheap on line , discounted flights) & dogs boarded in kennels, great weather out of our winter, & fantastic dental work. All for far less than anywhere here would have charged for the dental work.
Really starting to question the feasibility of continuing with a private health fund.
About $27 with HCF silver plus extras. Single, no kids