Health insurance - to have or not to have???

[LizLemon]

I agree with what the others said - sometimes it's worth having in the event something goes wrong. At the very least hospital.

Re the tax time financial advantage - PHI will only help avoid the medicare levy surcharge (and if you earn under a certain amount you wouldn't have to pay this anyway), it does not reduce your medicare levy, which is a flat rate of earnings. It's shoddy advertising really, they make it seem like it will save everyone by having PHI but it will only save those earning over a certain amount.

[*EJ*]

Re the tax time financial advantage - PHI will only help avoid the medicare levy surcharge (and if you earn under a certain amount you wouldn't have to pay this anyway), it does not reduce your medicare levy, which is a flat rate of earnings. It's shoddy advertising really, they make it seem like it will save everyone by having PHI but it will only save those earning over a certain amount.

Absolutely is shoddy advertising!!!! But at the same time a good argument for me with my DH and pursuading him to keep it going

[Olive]

there is a government website like iselect, that's where i found my fund, i only have basic cover

[Cranky Kitten]

If anything with kids I'd keep the extras and maybe reduce or change the hospital cover. And yes, some funds will do an extras-only policy. DD is staring down the barrel of braces/orthodontic work once her adult teeth finish coming through if they don't straighten up on their own, DH and I both wear glasses and I see a chiro every 2 weeks. Plus I only paid about $50 out of pocket for my last extraction (ouch) rather than the $200 it should've been.

We're with HBF which is a WA based insurer and have both health and car insurance with them through salary sacrifice with DH's work - definitely a better deal than paying directly, maybe check with your DH's employer to see if this is an option for you?

[~Kaz~]

Just want to second what MD said about the unexpected. I was also raised with PHI and parents who continued it for me while I studied until I was 21. I have kept it up ever since because you just never know what is around the corner and there is nothing more important than your health or that of your family. I did need it at 21 when I fell through a roof (don't ask!) and broke my wrist.

I would actually go without in other areas to maintain basic cover after witnessing DP go through his treatment (mainly in the public system) over the past 12 months.

DP was like your DH, never had it, never needed it. Even after we were living together and then had DS he still didn't get it straight away which cost ME at tax time two years running He finally took it out in early 2010 and then got sick with Lymphoma. It covered him getting his teeth cleaned (important during his second round of chemo/stem cell transplant to have a really clean, disease free mouth), it covered a lot of our travel and some occasional accommodation as we are in the country, it covered his out of pocket medication expenses and he was able to claim on most of his scans (which were many and each cost hundreds). He was treated mainly in the public system as he needed the specialist care in a large city hossy and they didn't diferentiate between public or private but when the cancer came back unexpectedly in his brain, he was able to book into the private system to have surgery to remove it the following week. If he'd stayed on the public waiting list it could have been a lot longer as although it was scary, it wasn't life threatening in an immediate sense. It was so lovely to just book in and get it taken out straight away. Money can't buy that kind of relief.

Having said all of that, I truly hope that if you take out PHI, you never actually need it in the way that we or MD did (don't wish that on anyone) and that years from now your DH can hassle you for all that "wasted" money because of how healthy you all are!

[*EJ*]

Wow ladies thanks again for sharing your stories. I think what i might do is get DH to sit down with me and read through your posts and to see how he feels then. You have all explained it much better than i ever could from true real life experiences.

I will also give Aust Unity a call and see what they can do for me. DS1 has kinder this afternoon and my other 2 should be in bed (hopefuly) so i will do it then.

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Although I am worried how we will continue to afford it while I am not at work, we signed up with Australian Unity with Hospital, Extras and mid-range excess and with the rebate applied I am paying $86 a week. It IS a lot, but when I thought about the benefits from dental alone it is totally worth it! My DH family has a string of health problems including sleep apnea and it covers CPAP machines, taking all those things into account - even though they are really only 'potential' issues it made it worthwhile for us.
That and oh I have been putting off seeing a chiro for years so if paying for PHI actually encourages me to see one - I see it as a good thing.
I really struggled to convince my husband but his parents always had cover so he was a little easier to bring around. Mine never did (but does now) and with one ambulance trip and two dental appointments in the space of a month, mums yearly premium just paid for itself.

And as MD said - I believe it is over the age of 30 you pay an additional 2% per year over 30 for your cover.

[Trillian]

I think it makes it harder to see the necessity of having it when you are well and lets face it, no one likes to think that they could have a serious medical issue where you need immediate treatment. I admit that if DH wasn't getting it paid for by work then we more than likely not have it, but we would be really struggling to pay for a lot of the things we really need like glasses, dental etc. Where I live there is a publicly funded dental clinic for kids, but she isn't a dentist, only a dental technician which means that her skills are limited. We used to take DD1 to see her all the time when she was a preschooler, but it got to the point where she needed better treatment because the public dentist just wasn't cutting the mustard so to speak. But now that we have the PHI, I don't think we will be without it again. I'm not sure how much it costs us because it is a corporate package for the company he works for and the premiums are hugely dicounted, but it would be costing us around $5000-6000 per year if we paid for it ourselves. This is with GUHealth. I don't know if once you stop working for them if you can continue paying it at the amount that the company pays or if it will revert to a normal policy.

[Olive]

DC i think its around 32-33

[Miss E]

We've got mid level hospital cover and the basic extras with Medibank Private and pay about $225 a month. It is a lot of money.

When we decide we're done having babies we will drop our hospital back to the basic level (only put it up to mid level to cover OB's). I too have wondered if it is really worth the expense at times... But because they have the lifetime healthcover (or whatever it's called) if you become a member before you're 30 and stay a member, you will never pay premiums any higher than what a 30 year old would pay. Because we're over 30, if we leave for a year or and then join up again our premiums will get higher and higher each year as we get older. But if we stick with it, they'll stay at relatively the same level. For me that was the clincher.

Olive, who are you with? that sounds like a great rate! I've been to iselect a couple of times, but always found that the plans they recommend are more expensive than what we've got

[jacklicky]

Im with Aust Unity and I really really dislike them. They are the most expensive and in the last three times i have called to enquire about claiming (with the codes from the DR) they have told me i am covered only to find out when I actually tried to claim I wasnt.

Not happy at all. I am going to change providers....but that said i would really look into the benefits you get from having PHI. Would you want to wait for surgery for you or your kids if you dont have to? Does DH's wage put him into the Medicare surchage area because although you still pay a levi....the surcharge on top of that can be huge (my Dh's was over $1000 from memory) so this itself can offset your payments... I know it is hard to come up with the money weekly but if you are going to have to come up with it at tax time you might as well get the benefits from it.

have you tried iselect or one of those kinda websites that compare all the health policies out there and can possibly get you a cheaper one...