All the articles talk about Public vs Private patient in public vs private in private.
Anyone have experience of private with no insurance?
Given it costs $8k over the 12mth waiting period, plus the gap, want to see what is the best option
Private Health Insurance Pregnancy - What Is Covered?
cheaptech20 on 16/01/2024 - 20:34
Comments
Thanks I'm curious about the cost of private with no insurance. PDS only shows what's covered etc.
Why do you want to go private without insurance? Most of the time you'll wind up in a public hospital anyway.
You can look up the various MBS codes, maybe find someone who has a summary of what it includes with a pregnancy. Then see the general cost and add more for private. I expect it'll be way more than $8k though.
Cost a mate from work $10k and that was with the right level of l health insurance.
Articles are NOT the PDS. Read the PDS.
It worths as my kids were in special care for two weeks…
were your kids in a private hospital?
SAN. private.
In private or public?
My understanding is most special care/critical care are public anyway and if you're in private they often get shipped off to public if they do need critical care.
We had both of our kids in public and had zero complaints. (well the food sucked but that's what uber eats is for)
That is the catch with private hospitals, sure you might be covered for your planned procedure, but if you or your baby needs higher level care then you need to make sure you are going to be covered. Otherwise $$$. Public is overwhelmingly free but you dont get a choice of your ob etc
There was a post similar to this a while back, but debating private vs public
My wife works in healthcare, we have insurance but chose to go public for 3 births, and the care has always been sensational. We’ve had 2 natural/quick deliveries and 1 planned C-section.
She said if there are any complications you’ll end up public anyway but know the perks of private appeal to somePrivate OB cost us 3K out of pocket up front which is not covered by insurance (and this doesnt include the monthly checkup fee with a gap). Insurance only covers the hospital stay portion. You still get the normal Medicare rebates on all your doctor visits which isn't a lot.
So I guess you're wondering if the hospital stay for 4 days in private is more or less than the 8K insurance premiums. We didn't get to see the pre insurance bill but I'm guessing it would be more than 8k especially if using an anesthestist. The main difference to public would be 100% guaranteed private room and option to stay longer if you feel you need it.
Private is not required, get a private midwife in a public hospital for best of both worlds.
We did this and can 100% recommend it. My wife felt so much more comfortable having her mid wife there. Turned out the midwife the hospital provided was an absolute gun as well so they both worked really well together. But knowing you had your own midwife there who you had met with earlier etc helped put her mind at ease. And it was a good compromise compared to going full private.
How do you do this? Is that private patient in public system?
Just find a private midwife company, you can get them for either public or private hospital. They're partially rebated by Medicare, our out of pocket was just under 4 grand, that includes all pre appointments for pregnancy period, hospital attendance and 6 weeks of daily post-natal appointments.
If you have health insurance as a couple (not family), you can switch it out to single for both and only upgrade the birthing parent to the higher policy that covers pregnancy. We saved a bit on the total premium costs and we got the same coverage for birthing as we would have as a couple on the higher policy.
N.B this was a few years ago so please do your own research.
You're best to call the private hospital you want to go to and find out their charges, and what differences there are with or without insurance. It would vary from hospital to hospital, location etc. Same with the OB that you want to engage ( although this is out of pocket even with insurance).
You will definitely want insurance if you go private.
Paying out of pocket is something like $1500 a night minimum just for the bed.Yeah the strict 12 month waiting period is the issue for me - so either public or private with payment are the only options left
I've put my thoughts in an earlier thread…copy and pasted below as feel it bucks the trend. The only other person we know that developed her condition was in the public system, lost about half their liver and had a longer recovery time and complications thereafter - because it wasnt identified as early as my wifes was.
Copy and paste from earlier thread:
She chose to go private. At first, I questioned whats the difference, but she insisted and given she's the one carrying, who am I to object?
Then, given complications that arose at 35 weeks, I've never been happier to have had private as the private OB made the right call to deliver early, and the follow up to my wife and co-ordinating and delivering the specialists needed to get my wife through the complication meant that she has no ongoing health issues, whereas the only other person I know who had the condition has been left with liver issues and inability to have another child, whereas we just had our 2nd last year, without the same complication arising.
IMO, public is fine unless shit hits the fan. My wife presented to emergency at 35 weeks pregnant with back pain for her first pregnancy. The OB was the only doctor that didnt brush my wifes call off saying this pain isnt normal and something is wrong, and she pushed and pushed and pushed for an urgent blood test in the emergency - which immediately identified the condition which caused things to happen very quickly. Had we been in public system, its very likely that she would have been brushed off for the condition to severely worsen rapidly - find me a 35 week pregnant person who isnt in some form of pain, and the condition she'd developed is rare - so you can understand doctors being reluctant to think its not just normal pregnancy pain. Until this, it was a straight forward pregnancy - but things turned very quickly and without any rhyme/reason - so nothing could be done to prevent it.
Out of pocket was maybe a total of $6k, including all OB appointments/scans/medical/tests/hospital excess/anaethestist, and we didnt see a single bill arising from the complication as it was all treated in private hospital, including ~2 weeks admission + newborn into special care nursery.
Read the PDS, there's lots of insurance companies. Many will differ.
You can even call them to ask questions.