Which Private Health Fund?

[Aimz]

I am currently with Medibank Private and I have been since I was a tot. My parents still pay for my cover!!

DH has never had private health cover and due to the fact that he is nearly 30 it will be cheaper for him to get it sooner rather than later and I need to get my own!! We only need couples cover but obviously need a plan that includes obstetrics and assisted conception (should the need arise). It also needs to have good dentist and optometrist cover. I'm looking at HCF but would love some other suggestions. So far it looks like it will cost us $60 p/w.

I would love to know what health fund you are with and if you think you are getting good cover for the amount of money you pay.

[briggsy's girl]

i'm currently with Latrobe Health Services. after 12 months waiting, you have AC coverage (for me at the clinic i use, hospital costs are fully covered). i have ancilliaries with them and it covers optical, dental, endodontal, chiro - all with pretty good limits. i pay about $70 a week with them, but DH didn't get private health cover until he was 39 so we pay the extra loading on his payments.

[Arimeh]

We are with NIB and we think its great. We started out on the couples basic saver one, and then the kids are just added and we become a family - for not much more. I think we pay $77 a fortnight for the four of us.

We get physio, chiro, hospital & labour cover (had to make sure the labour was included cos then i didn't have to pay any extra expenses with c/s!!), I think we get about $400 a year for optical each.. uh.... I'd have to check the AC stuff cos I've never had to think about that before...

[Aimz]

I just had a look at the AHM website (Australian Health Management) and they have top cover for $50 a week which includes all the obstetrics and AC stuff as well as generous limits on dental and optometry. They also cover costs for laser eye surgery - something I have been considering for a long, long time.

Anyone with AHM?

[mumma_lion]

Hi,

We are with Medibank Private and even though we don't need all the services I still got top cover for us just in case. My hubby and I pay an excess once a year of $300.00 (only if an adult goes to hospital) and a co-payment of $50.00 per night. There is no excess or co-payment for the children. We find that we use the health fund more for the extras than the hospital. We pay $227 a month for the cover. I do think that having a health fund is very worth while eg. because I was in a private health fund when I had my baby in the public hospital - I had my private Ob and I was looked after by the medical staff who had the most experience not the trainees.

[Shellbelle]

We are with AHM. They are currently in the process of being brought out by Medibank Private. We received a letter saying this is most likely the scenario. They will be a subsidiary of MBP, still branded AHM. So not sure if the premiums will go up then But have found them to be good.

[Ozstar]

I too am with AHM and have been for over 10 years. I have never had a problem with them. Like Shellbelle said though they are being bought out by Medibank, apparently nothing will change though except that Medibank will own them.

[Aimz]

OK I've got a quote from AHM which is for Family Hospital Cover and Family Extras which is $54.95 per week. Is anyone else who is with AHM on this level of cover? Is it adequate cover? I'm hesitant to go the top cover as it has so many extras we would never use.

[Curly]

I've been with HCF for 8 years and have been very happy with them...but I have to ditch them after I've given birth to Number Two, who is due next week. This is because they will no longer have a participating hospital agreement with Cabrini and I haven't finished having babies yet...and I really want to keep going to Cabrini! Pretty cross because I think we've had an awesome deal with them and every quote I get for another fund is more expensive.

I think we will be going with Australian Unity because we can get a 7.5% discount with them through DS' education fund. But I was looking very closely at AHM. We would have gone with them if it weren't for the discount we get with AU.

[briggsy's girl]

Amy - we have top cover for both hospital and ancilliaries with Latrobe - we pay extra for DH for his hospital cover cos he was 39 when he entered PHI - just went and had a look, and we pay $57.77 for the lot. that includes an extra 9% on the hospital part because of DH's age when he entered PHI

[Aimz]

I will look into that BG - that sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Is it really 9% if you're over the age limit?? WOW .

[briggsy's girl]

it depends on how far over the age limit you are - i think being 39 when DH entered PHI, it added the 9%. i can't recall for sure, but i think once you've been paying the extra for 10 years, it drops off...

it's latrobehealth with the normal dot com dot au after it - ring them for a quote - tell them what you want and get the best deal for your circs - they're really helpful people

[Kitt3n]

We are with NIB - great service, good prices - our cover is 80% on anything claimable (physio, chiro, optical etc) and we have family cover - its about $85 a fortnight......

We get a limit of (roughly) $300 on each service, each of us, every year, 80% cover on new glasses every year.... if you use it properly we defiantly get our money's worth.

we dont have the other extras such as naturopathy etc though.

[belle75]

Maybe give iSelect a call? they can find the cheapest and most appropriate level of cover for you - no charge.

[briggsy's girl]

iselect DON'T have all health funds - they only have the ones that pay for their recommendations - and they're by no means cheap

i have spoken to them, told them what i was getting, and their nearest competitive deal was about half as much again...

[Aimz]

Yeah I'm not a fan of iSelect - I'd much rather look around myself (and ask my buddies on BB) and talk directly to the health funds. And as you said BG - they don't have all of the health funds listed on their website.

I looked into Latrobe and they look pretty good - although their level of dental and optical doesn't seem to be as high as some of the others. This is something we would both use (especially the optical) so we would need quite a high limit on those.

I also had a look at NIB but their AC cover is pretty low (some levels have none at all) so it's probably not ideal.

I'm thinking AHM is the go.

[briggsy's girl]

not sure what the current extras plans are dental wise, but we've been covered for dental to over $17k value in 12 months (both had major dental surgery etc) so i think it depends on what dental you want

i compared the other options we had for cover, looked at what we'd be paying additional each week, and figured it was still better value with Latrobe for what we use. we use a lot of alternative therapies (accupuncture/chiro etc) which has more generous limits than i've seen anywhere else. the optical i figured i get new glasses once every 12 months, because i get frames with clip on sunnies, $230 is covered straight up, the lenses aren't that exxy and are generally less than the extra i'd pay with another fund (if that makes sense)

[Bathsheba]

We are with NIB - great service, good prices - our cover is 80% on anything claimable (physio, chiro, optical etc) and we have family cover - its about $85 a fortnight......

We get a limit of (roughly) $300 on each service, each of us, every year, 80% cover on new glasses every year.... if you use it properly we defiantly get our money's worth.

we dont have the other extras such as naturopathy etc though.

We've been with NIB for the last 10 years too. They are excellent! Never a problem with any claim. Dh gets reduced premiums because he is part of a corporate plan too. I would highly recommend them.