I need to transfer my private health from a family policy with 2 adults to a policy with 1 adult, and I want to keep my current level of cover.
My problem is that it is a corporate cover based on former employment of the adult who will no longer be on this policy.
It is an excellent policy and there is nothing comparable on the market. Currently I get my premiums back in dental and optical alone, plus have children with preexisting conditions who currently have treatments covered under the policy at $0 out of pocket.
Is it possible to do this? If I can't stay on this policy then I will have to run the numbers as my income isn't too huge for the extra Medicare tax %.
Private health insurance
boots of truth on 28/12/2019 - 12:55
Comments
It was when we started the policy but he left that job 15years ago and we have moved States and added children and they haven't ended the policy since he is no longer employed.but it's not available to new customers
If it's a large-ish heath fund, then their website might also say whether you can convert the policy to cover only yourself & your children.
E.g. the RBHS website says that it is open to former spouses of former RBA/NPA employees:
Why not just maintain the policy and pay part of the premium to your ex?
That's what I'm currently doing but I don't want him having access to my medical records and he will possibly stop paying his half.
Since I stopped paying his bills he has started getting debt collection letters and I don't want any financial liability.
Fair enough, unfortunate that it wasn't amicable.
Unfortunate that I didn't marry a functional adult but the past is past so I'm focusing on building a future for myself and my children.
so you will like to get benefit of a corporate policy on his expense but does not want to pay his bills
devilsadvocate
Yes, I think an adult should work and pay their own bills, or parent their children rather than expecting to not work or parent or study or do housework while their spouse does everything. And I shouldn't have to access his bank accounts to pay his bills when we aren't in a relationship, because he is apparently an adult. But it would be nice for his children to have the benefit of the PHI they currently use.
@DiLs: It's not corporate insurance, that is paid by the employer.
It's a restricted health fund. There's quite a few these, like CBHS, which is open only to current & former CBA employees & their current & former spouses & other relatives.
OK. I'll bite. OP was eligible when they joined and has been paying for her share of the premiums, so there is no taking advantage of the ex here.
You'll have to call up & ask the health fund if this is possible. There's no general rules on this, which apply to all insurers.
Yeh just pick up the phone and ask the phone operator, you're staring down the barrel of losing your policy anyway so there is no harm in asking them directly.
There's a good chance you'll be good to stay covered without your former partner.
Having been eligible to sign up, most policies should have you remaining eligible in perpetuity.
I just went through the online sign-up questionnaire for one of my previous employers and it pretty much went like this:
- Have you ever worked (including contracting) for XXX?
- No
- Has anyone in your family ever worked (including contracting) for XXX?
- Yes
- Good news, it looks like you're eligible!
Where family is:
- Your parents
- Your siblings and their partners
- Your partner (or former partner)
- Your children
- Your grandchildren
This. Call them up. You were eligible when the policy was taken out, so unless the policy has changed, there is a good chance that you can have the same policy in your own name. Usually they'd rather have two policy-holders than one - more premiums for them.
If you can't have that, shop around. I was in the same situation, and ended up with a cheaper policy, with only a few compromises on the cover that didn't matter to me.
- Have you ever worked (including contracting) for XXX?
I think the only people who can give reliable accurate information is the PHI themselves. What we/you believe is morally right doesn't really matter…
Are these restricted Phi funds significantly better than the usual big players?
How do they do this without the economy of scale of having a large number of members? Is there a risk they go bust?
Generally, they are cheaper, but it depends on the type of cover. There might be some funds that could be found after searching, that are equally or slightly more cheap.
The funds are not-for-profit, so they don't have to provide a cut of the premiums to their shareholders.
Them going bust is highly unlikely. The health insurance market is very heavily regulated & there is a pooling arrangement for funds that have more older or unwell members.
They are all rip-offs if you ask me.
It's just you now… get the cheapest you can. Or just don't even bother.
Think of the money you would save.Having 6 people visit the dentist for a check up and 3 people who wear glasses covered 100% is already the premium back each year, then everything else is just icing. Basically it saves me money as I couldn't afford preventative health care for everyone, as well as having access to private specialists as needed.
Which fund is that? My hcf one returns a small fraction of extras costs.
You can transfer out of one health policy into another without sitting out the waiting period for comparible cover.
Looks like OP has top cover so this will not be a cheap excercise.
Furthermore singles cover is 50% of family cover so that will make things look even more expensive.Then you need to consider that the Lifetime health Cover loading starts at age 30 and increases by 2% per year over the age of 30.
Since you have been covered until now this loading wont apply immediately but it will increase by 2% for each year you avoid health cover if you are over the age of 30.So lots of things to consider. Good luck
There are no comparable covers available. My industry one is considered excellent and is still not as good as this one (gold hospital, silver extras with 0 out of pocket for kids dental check ups and all of our optical, for under 300 a month for 6 people)
I had a similar cover but it is not 0 out of pocket, has $500 excess and costs $5000 a year before the government rebate. Hence why I dropped it yesterday to the cheapest hospital and extras, primarily to avoid packing the medicare levy surcharge which pretty much pays for the hospital cover
Is it a condition of the policy that you must be an employee (or partner/family member of an employee) of the said corporation to be eligible for the cover? If so (as is the case with most corporate plans), then you may be out of luck.