We thought we were skating by ok without hospital cover...until I suddenly needed my gallbladder out and had to wait 4 months of excruciating (go-to-the-ER for morphine) pain while waiting to get it attended in the public hospital system...oh and then they found cancer...I had excellent treatment in the public hospital BUT if I hadn't been happy with my surgeon or oncologist things like having reconstruction might've taken a lot longer...I'm just lucky the planets aligned and matched me with one of the best drs. We took out hospital cover after the gallbladder incident (not that it was life threatening but 4 months of pain when I coulda had it done in 10 days privately gives you pause to reconsider) but funnily enough most of my treatment was finished by the time the waiting period ran out. Keeping it now because I'm in a high risk band due to long-term after-effects of the cancer treatment. I also think it depends a little on where you are located, I happened to be lucky to be near a tertiary level hospital with a large specialised treatment centre...not everyone has the luxury of having the right facilities near by and if there's any chance to may need to travel interstate for treatment then having choices is important.

My point is, you're sailing along fine then BAM suddenly something happens and all of a sudden your health care gets complicated.