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
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.
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.
Last edited by Bathsheba; August 18th, 2009 at 01:34 PM.
I was thinking of cutting back but then DH's work allows us to get it at corporate price and it worked out cheaper upgrading to top cover of both hospital and extras then to keep what we had!! Weird I know.
I read this yesterday and remember thinking "Nah, I really don't need it"
Two hours later I'm lying on the side of the road, drifting in and out of consciousness, waiting for an ambulance after a big bike accident. As it turned out, I ended up at a public hospy anyway, because their A & E had the least queue, but it made me wonder....
We're not covered for accidents (well we are but we wouldn't go private for an accident)... like you said, you won't be refused instant treatment in an emergency. It's more to insure us against non-emergency health issues... like root canal treatment! You also hear of people who could have had earlier life saving cancer treatment etc. I just don't want to see any of us on public hospital waiting lists.
Thanks, Bath, I'm OK, but maybe writing some junk posts because I'm junked up on painkillers And laughing at everything - I was laughing while I was on the spinal board too, I felt so bad, but I couldn't help it.
ETA - I have top extras, for dental etc (first thing I thought of when I hit my chin on landing!)
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And laughing at everything - I was laughing while I was on the spinal board too, I felt so bad, but I couldn't help it.
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