Private health-any one cancelled/cut back on it?

[mitzy81]

I am not sure if this is in the right place, DP & I have private health for 'just in case'. It is costing us $120 a month (it could even be more. just basic cover, cheapest we can find) and so far it is only used on dental. Bubba is due in January, I am due to stop work at Christmas, we are trying to save and cut back on bills, but has anyone cut back with private health? I have been thinking maybe we should drop back to extras only. Has anyone else done this?

[Pandora]

yes, we have, i have cut back on hospital and on extras, and am seriously thinking of dropping extras entirely until I go back to work as we just cant afford it atm.

[Olive]

we have just basic hospital costs around $65 a month for the family, i did have top extras but it just didnt get used, we've saved by not having it!

[GlitterMum]

We are currently paying $212 a month for top extras and top hospital with no excess.
Bubs is due in Decemebr and as soon as he comes we will be dropping hospital and our costs go down to $66 per month. A huge difference.
It is expensive for us now but we are just keeping it in place just in case

[AngelPunks]

I'm going to be dropping extras down very shortly (i'm on intermediate cover) - once I've got my latest glasses & contacts and dental - I'm going to talk to my accountant and work out if it is better off financially for me to drop hospital cover and just pay the penalty or keep it for the tax break.

[Bathsheba]

We decided to keep ours through thick and thin. Past experience taught us that things always go wrong when least you can afford it. The more kids we have the more it is worth it for us. Soon all 5 of us will be going to the dentist twice a year. I am worried that we actually don't have enough cover... if I need root canal therapy for instance (and you don't get much warning about that very expensive treatment) we are not currently covered... DH needed it once and set us back over a $1000 out of pocket. We can't afford for that to happen again. Maybe if dental was covered by Medicare it would be different... also DH's Medicare levy would be too high now if we didn't have it.
We just have ours taken out by direct debit and try not to think about it. There are other things we'd cut back, like possibly stopping having a landline telephone before cutting our PHC. They are a similar amount per month.

ETA: Forgot to add that because we have had PHC ever since before we turned 30 we have both avoided the added surcharge to our premiums... DH is 43 now... and I am 40 that would an extra amount we would have to pay if we cut it out.