Hi OZBs,
I am looking for a money worth private health insurance which has good hospital and dental coverage. Don't need pregnancy coverage.
Appreciate your comments and help in advance.
Money Worth Health Insurance for Hospital + Dental
Lsade on 20/01/2019 - 13:06
Comments
The issue comes down to how healthy are you and how likely are you to stay healthy. Both my other half, and I, are in our middle to late 50s and we are beginning to get a few issues. In my case Medicare is more than adequate for my current issues but for my other half the ability to go to Private specialists has certainly helped him. We had pretty low grade cover until we hit our early 50s then we started to ramp things up. You can still go into public hospitals as a private patient; this does have the advantage of giving the public system a bit more money to work with and, within reason, you can select a specialist who will work with that hospital.
The current Australian public system is great if you have a genuine emergency but it does suck a bit if you want non urgent things like hip replacements, or dental work done.
but for my other half the ability to go to Private specialists has certainly helped him
All the private health policies I've seen don't cover private specialists unless admitted to hospital (that's the main reason I cancelled my policy) - have you got a policy that does?
heck i ditto that. never heard of a PHI that covered specialists…unless you mean private surgeons?
By law, PHI can't cover out of hospital specialists.
Some specialists only work for particular private hospitals. They don't have an affiliated public hospital.
Look. You (and me) just a normal individual, small potatoes. You think we can beat those big companies? Get something that worth the money?
Of course no. They have hundreds resources staffs to make sure their products are making them profit.
Except the Not For Profit health funds
I always wonder - is there such a thing?
Yeah otherwise known as "not making a loss either tks" health funds…
They are called Members Own funds. The term 'not for profit' is always a bit misleading though. 'Not for profit' doesn't mean 'Doesn't make a profit'. But it means that they spend their money on reinvesting for members.
We feel that we get good value with AHM. If you go to Pacific Smiles Dental (they have lots of franchises), regular dental checkups are free with AHM twice per year (i.e. no out of cost expenses). They also have good rebates for dental in general if you visit a different dentist. This alone covers our premium costs.
PLUS they often have a special where they will give you one month free (for existing and new customers if you ring them) - not sure if they are doing that right now though.
hospital and dental are actually 2 different insurance policies. Dental is extras or ancillary cover, I don't think it is actually worth getting as you will find the payouts are not very good and you will have large gaps or limits.
For you to get your money's worth, you'd have to be visiting a range of different types of service providers frequently with some sort of chronic condition.
If you're just using a single type of service, then you're better off going without insurance. The limits on individual types of services will stop you from getting value.
Any medical conditions you have will also need to present itself after you've purchased the insurance since there are restrictions on pre-existing conditions.