Private Health Insurance Choice

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  FirstWizard on 30/11/2018 - 00:00

  +2

  This is a complicated topic.
  Medicare provides a basic level of care, and private health insurance would complement Medicare and provide additional benefits that do not come with Medicare.
  Eg. Most Dental procedures (including cleanups), Glasses/contact lenses, Private hospital treatment (sometimes this means you do not have to wait in line for some procedures at public hospitals), and many more.

  For most treatments that are covered by Medicare, PHI would provide a benefit to complement, reducing the burden on the Medicare system.

  If your income is above a certain threshold, you may have to pay a Medicare levy surcharge on top of the Medicare levy if you do not have adequate PHI during any time of that year. This is determined at tax time.

  To answer your question about LHC, it only applies if later in your life you decide to take up PHI. Will not apply if you never will get PHI in your lifetime. LHC will increase your premiums during that time by a rate determined by the number of years you did not have insurance since 31.

  As I said before, it's more complicated, and read more to get the whole picture.

  I don't think there a "perfect" PHI. It all depends on if you are single, have a family/ dependants, planning a family, stage in your life, age, wear glasses, needs chiro/physio, goes to the doctor often, how often you travel. I usually re-evaluate mine every 6 months, often jump between different providers to get the signup bonus :P
  None of them gives you benefits for being with them for longer.

  *DISCLAIMER: Not Tax or insurance advice.

  • 

    saku0751 on 30/11/2018 - 10:24

    Thanks. It will be great if you could tell me things which I should consider before choosing PHI. I often have back pain issues.

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  Diji1 on 30/11/2018 - 01:49

  -3

  Australia has chosen to follow the US model of health care and we are in the transistion period.

  The USA is a broken system where 30 million people recieve no health care at all. The number one reason for personal bankruptcies for the entire nation, including all the people that paid health insurance, is health care. And after they go bankrupt they die.

  This occurs in the wealthiest nation that has ever existed in history. Almost all other developed nations feature a universal healthcare system. They are all much poorer than the USA.

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    FirstWizard on 30/11/2018 - 20:07

    I agree with you on the fact that the US healthcare system is the worst. I have first-hand experience having lived there myself for some time. And yes insurance companies have played a major role in driving the price up and up.

    And it is sad to see this happening in some industries here in Australia as well. For example, Dentistry is one area that Medicare does not provide many benefits. Currently, there are many practices in Aus that provide no-gap routine inspection and cleaning for anyone with any level of health insurance.
    They do this by driving the price up on their services so that those losses can be recouped by other customers. However, if anyone without insurance goes for treatment they're f#@ked.

    For @saku0751 s information, there are 2 methods of benefits from PHI. Some policies pay a fixed benefit towards a service.They layout in their policy that say for scale and clean the benefit is $175. The dentist is allowed to charge more than that, but you only get the set amount back.
    Some policies pay a percentage. these go from anywhere between 100%-50% depending on the premium you pay. Say the normal fair price for a for a cleanup is $175. But the places that advertise as no-gap charge $250 for the service. For anyone with 100% coverage he practice makes a lot of profit, but if the person has a 50% policy, the practice is at a loss of $50, because of their "no gap" system.

    But if a person with no insurance go there, they end up paying the full $250 :( I now see more and more places doing no-gap covers which would eventually wreck the system.

    Not trying to make this a political debate, but I do not (yet) believe that Australia will ditch Medicare for a purely private system. I'm all in for free stuff. But to give everyone a high level of over, Medicare levy would have to go up much higher than the current 2%. I'm happy to pay the money I pay to PHI, to the government if I can get the same level of benefit the next time I go buy glasses or get a remedial massage.
    But I'm sure a huge percentage of the population would not be happy if the Medicare levy even goes up by 1% more.

    Currently, Medicare seems to have struck a bargain with the amount of care. You get a basic cover from there, and if you want more benefits (like glasses/contact lenses, which not everyone needs) you can take up PHI. Also if you earn enough, you should not be a burden on the free healthcare system which is already being choked.

    Edit: Sorry for the rant :P

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  toniyellow on 30/11/2018 - 08:06

  https://www.doineedhealthinsurance.com.au

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  onevstheworld on 01/12/2018 - 07:06

  I have moved to australia recently

  Are you sure you have Medicare? Are you a returning Australian citizen or permanent resident?

  To answer your question, look at the policy terms. If it only covers public hospitals and emergencies only, it's likely a junk policy meant to lower your tax bill, not cover anything that Medicare doesn't already cover. Also, I'd personally avoid any for-profit funds. They've got a history of changing cover conditions to their customer's detriment. You can find a list of not-for-profit funds here:

  https://www.canstar.com.au/health-insurance/not-for-profit-h…