If you earn over a certain amount and don't have Private health insurance the. You get charged and extra 1%Medicare levy and it is normally cheaper to have private hospital cover than being charged the Extra levy with the benefit of having the cover. The amount you have to earn as a family is quite high well over $100k just google it and I'm sure you'll find the figure.(I'm on my phone otherwise I would). Then there is extras cover which covers things like physio, you can have extras without having hospital.