Having PHI does not mean you can't access Medicare benefits. PHI covers things Medicare does not. If Medicare covers it, PHI won't (simplistically put).
As someone who spent three years worth of savings (our first house deposit) on a private hospital stay and treatment for endo because we didn't have PHI, I wouldn't be without it now. We have hospital and extras and it's more than paid for itself.
We make sure we get the best value we can out of it so that means, among other things, dentist check ups every 6 months (we've just had our last lot and for three of us we'd have been out of pocket over $450 but 100% covered by PHI! And that was just a check up, no treatment needed), chiro (covers $1200/year), optical (though an eye test every two years is covered by Medicare) etc.
As Cherished said, there are lots of other things that would have to go before we'd consider giving up our PHI. $150/month sounds expensive, but I know someone who smokes/drinks moderately and they spend $150/week on that habit. Then there's their pay TV, lunches and snacks for work 5 days a week, the DVD's they 'have' to buy every week, the Friday night take away etc etc - oooh, if only I had their budget to cut back on, we'd be rich, lol!
I know finances are tight for you, but I'd be looking at other ways to cut back before losing your PHI. Shop around, you can get a better deal than what you have and maybe you can also select the type of extras that would most benefit you and your family.
I have now signed up to Comprehensive Extras that is costing me $73 a month. This i feel we will be able to make better use of for the money we are paying, i intend on using quite a few of them. So i know we are taking a risk in some way by not having hospital cover but for the time being this is what we are able to afford. I have just under 3 years to sign back up to hospital cover before we will be changed an extra levy for being over 32 (i think that was the age??). Once i am back at work again i will change our cover to hospital and extras.
As for ambulance the other night i was talking through various extras cover with DH and one of them included ambulance but in emergency only. It would cover only if the reason was specificly listed as being an emergency. Before i had even read what has been posted in here my thoughts on that were i would still pay ambulance for the security of knowing that no matter what the circumstance we would be covered.
For me i have always been a member and encouraged DH to become a member when he was younger and would go on motorbike riding weekends. Thankfully he has never needed an ambulance but his friends have after coming off their bikes in the bush.
Also a close friend of mines DP has twice been caught out needing an ambulance without actually having any cover. I'm not too sure about the details of the first time but i know the second time involved an ambulance ride and then being airlifed. One was for a car accident and the other was for a freak accident while away on a boys weeeknd. So twice he has been left with very large bills.
You really do never know when you might need it. Earlier this year i called an ambulance for DD which was the first time ever for me. She woke up with croup and was gasping for breath, i knew i needed to get her to the hospital but putting her in the car and drving her myself (so DH could stay home with the boys at 11pm) was not an option (i knew she would not handle it well as she was a bugger in the car and her breathing was worse when upset). So my thoughts were i know she needs treatment tonight, i pay my membership this is a time when i need to use it. It's the best $75 a year i could spend for my family in my opinion and we definately would not have access to such funds if we needed them without membership.
All it is is $75 a year and for all the years we've been a member now i still don't know if the total cost i've paid would cover what our one and only trip would have cost us. It's supporting the organisation also, i want them to be there for me like this for as long as i and my family are alive.
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