Finally about to turn 30 and figure it's time to get private health insurance. I'm a relatively healthy bloke, no existing dramas. I wear glasses that I buy pretty cheaply online, and that's about my only real health expense.
Should I just find the cheapest basic plan? Are there any extras you regret not getting?
Thanks, will look at the figures. I'm hoping to be that high income class soon!
Or if you have a chronic disease, I wouldn't trust a lot of state health services to have your back in all areas. Even good doctors in a broken system can't help you if they haven't been given the latest training or tools or whatever.
Private health is split into hospital cover and extras.
Based on your needs extras wouldnt give you any value. Though some majors do a good minor dental 100% claim and that's often worth it for some people.
Hospital cover exists generally as a peace of mind type of thing, but covers some planned things like pregnancy.
I just did a shit ton of research on this matter due to planning for a baby. I think I'll make a full post with my findings. A family member just switched careers to a role at a major private health insurer so I have some very current industry info.
For age 30+, also need to mention LHC, important to long term planning.
Honestly Join HIF.com.au given you are in Perth…
They are great to deal with, well priced and there is even a OzB referral scheme at: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/hif.com.au
As far as buying cheap glasses, with Extras after a 2 month qualifying period you have some cover via Saver Options (or higher) and you get Retina Scans and Field Vision testing etc.
Extras also covers you for Ambulance.
LHC is a pretty big deal once you turn 30 isnt it? I'm not around all the details myself, anyone else know whether its better off to cop the LHC later on if you are fit and healthy now, or better to have full hospital insurance for the long run??
It's 2% per year after 30, to a max of 70%. It can be a shit load if u want private hospo to cover something like cancer for a few years, considering the base cost of gold or the wankier versions of silver.
LHC is pretty complicated so maybe read into it here:
https://www.privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/surcharges…
My advice, if you are not sure about hospital insurance/LHC make sure you have an eligible hospital cover for your LHC base day at least.
Your LHC base day is 1st of July following your 31st birthday.
Reason being, you can hold the hospital cover for a month or whatever to lock in your LHC base day. After that you have 1094 Permitted days without hospital cover where your LHC will not increase even if you don't hold hospital insurance. During this time you can look into it all a bit further if needed.
If you have any other questions I can try to answer them. It has been a long time since I had to calculate LHC. I used to calculate LHC for a health insurance company. Legislation may have changed since then too.
Hi ozbs25, does the calculation of LHC take into account of the time spent overseas? Say one is 41 years old and has been overseas since turning 31. This person returns after turning 41. Is the loading zero%? Or 2 x 10%?
Yes it does. All the info is here but I'll try to take some of the more important parts and put them here. I would also read about "International Movement Record". I won't paste that here as it's in the form of a table on the linked page.
When is my LHC base day?
In most cases, your Lifetime Health Cover base day is the later of 1 July 2000 or the 1 July following your 31st birthday.
For example, Chloe turned 31 in January 2019, so her Lifetime Health Cover base day is 1 July 2019. Chloe held hospital cover on her 31st birthday but decided to cancel the policy in March 2019. In September 2019, Chloe started a new hospital cover. Chloe pays a 2% loading on top of her normal hospital premium as she did not have hospital cover on her base date of 1 July 2019.
Some special circumstances may apply if you are a new migrant or an Australian who has been living overseas.
Overseas on the 1 July following your 31st birthday
If you are
- an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and
- you were overseas on the 1 July following your 31st birthday, and
- your 31st birthday falls after 1 July 2000, and
- you return to Australia, and
- you purchase hospital cover by the first anniversary of the day of your return to Australia, then you will not pay a Lifetime Health Cover loading.
You can return to Australia for periods of up to 90 consecutive days, per visit, and are still considered to be overseas. So your 'return' is your first period of 90 days or more in Australia.
If you purchase hospital cover after the end of the first anniversary of the date of your return to Australia, LHC loading will be applied based on your age at the date of joining.
An example: Phuong is an Australian citizen and her date of birth is 5 April 1983. She left Australia on 26 June 2014 (before 1 July following her 31st birthday) to live in Ecuador for 2 years. Phuong visited her parents in Australia five times, for no more than 40 days per visit. She permanently returned to live in Australia on 25 June 2016. Her new LHC base day is 25 June 2017. Phuong purchased hospital cover on 12 October 2018. On that date Phuong was 35 years old so she has to pay 10% LHC loading (2% per year x 5 years over age 30).
Permitted days without hospital cover
If you have held hospital cover on or after your Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) base day, then you can access the following 'permitted days without hospital cover'. During these periods, you do not have an active hospital policy, but your loading does not increase.
- Going overseas - if you cancel your hospital insurance after your Lifetime Health Cover base day to go overseas for at least one continuous year, the days you spend outside of Australia are not counted towards the 1094 Days of Absence. You can return to Australia for periods of up to 90 consecutive days, per visit, and be considered to be overseas. Any periods of 90 days or more which you spend in Australia during this time will be deducted from the 1094 Days of Absence.
Maybe get an eligible hospital cover just to lock in your LHC base day. You can get 3 years worth of no increases to your LHC loading after that which is equivalent to 6%.
Your LHC base day is 1st of July following your 31st birthday.
it is mostly a scam for a person in your situation.
stay away
If you earn over 90k as a single or 180k as a couple then getting hospital cover will save you relative to the Medicare Levy Surcharge.
What about dental? that's also an area where I get pretty good value back
when I took out a basic cover which I thought was purely for tax & dental purposes turned out to give me back a lot more when I was injured and required physio & surgery that I would definitely not be offered or will have to wait years for in the public system
I'd only get it if you're a high income earner and would get stung the extra medicare levy without it.