We have chosen life/accident and trauma insurance over private health insurance. Where we live any major medical problem is dealt with via the public system and is dealt with reasonably quickly. The same Dr's in the private are the same ones in the public hospital. There was less than 3 months wait for a procedure for me going public.
When we were in Melbourne DH had a life threatening condition, he was seen quickly. When it came to his surgery he had the top Professor in the field do his surgery. We had district nursing visits when we came home, which we found out later if we had private health insurance would have left us $100's out of pocket, as opposed to us just paying for the dressing supplies.
I do have some basic extras and have done since I left home, it costs me very little. When we are more financial I will look at if we can have the family just covered for extra's and not hospital, as I want the girls covered for any major dental.
My sister before she died of cancer gave me one piece of advice and that was to have life insurance instead of private health.
A couple of points: iselect is a private business, it is not run by the government. They promote the insurance agencies who pay them to. I believe there is a different, independent organisation that does the same thing.
I can't remember who told me this or if it's accurate mathematically, but I'm pretty sure if you must have either hospital or extras, take hospital. A stay in hospital could cost you tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the condition. You rarely go through that much in extras. dental can get up there, but it's so expensive anyway. Apparently, you're better off saving for the extras things like dental, optical, chiro etc. I've never actually done the maths. I should do - we're with Aust Unity and we pay a fortune.
I have to look at our cover, as we're paying through the nose to be covered for a homebirth. Well, DS1 came 5 days before our 12month wait was up, so we weren't covered. We did get the midwife reimbursed for DS2, which was a bonus, though Medicare can pay some of it now (circumstances depending). As it was, we ended up birthing in the public system twice in a year and didn't pay a cent. It's not likely I'll ever have a homebirth now, so we don't need that level of cover. Though apparently if we go to the Aust Unity dentist in the city, we don't pay a cent.
Saying that, I have acupuncture weekly, regularly go to the osteo/naturopath etc. Dh has optical. I've run out of PHI claims on many of my extras. I even claim vitamins. I also know my Mum paid a small fortune for all my orthodontic work back in the day (thank goodness for being covered up to 21).
I've heard LaTrobe is good. I need to do my research too.
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