I wasn't sure whether to put this in the money/budgeting section or health thread.
DH and I are reviewing our finances and have decided that we need to 'trim' our budget. This is probably a rather complex question, but I am just wondering what other people's views are on the necessity of private health insurance? We have had a basic level of private health cover for the past few years which includes some extras for chiro, naturopathy etc, but are starting to wonder just how necessary it is?
Some facts I've been considering are;
We chose midwifery-led care for both our boys births via the public system and don't plan to deviate from this for any future births.
Private health can only ensure you may receive faster service for non-life threatening illness or injury. Therefore, if something serious such as a car accident or cancer rears its ugly head, the public health system foots the bill for treatment anyway...
DH and I (and kids) live a very healthy lifestyle - don't smoke, drink sparingly, eat natural organic foods, use chemical-free products, keep fit etc etc, so statistically speaking our risk rate is low. However these lifestyle choices are only more likely to prevent illness that the public system takes care of anyway. They will not prevent a non-life threatening injury that health insurance would cover (ie - knee operation).
I know our western society endorses the view that it is irresponsible to not have private health cover, but to date I cannot really say that we have felt the benefits, at least not in relation to the hundred or so $$ that we are forking out each month.
If anyone is happy to argue the whys and why-nots for having private health cover, and what you have chosen to do, I would be glad to hear it.
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.
Our budget has become very tight since we've sent our DD to boarding school but we wouldn't trim our budget with regard to our PHC (private health cover). Mainly because if we cancelled it we would have to start paying higher premiums again if we ever rejoined (both DH and I are over 40). I can't recall the exact ratios but I know that once you are over 30 you have to pay a percentage more in your premiums. DH is 43 so might have to pay something like 13% more if we ever cancelled and rejoined IYKWIM? I am 41 this year so maybe that will mean an added %11 for me... it's something like that. As we stand now we don't have to pay that extra bit because we had PHC since before we turned 30. ETA: oh and now DH is on a higher income and the Medicare Levy payable (if we didn't have PHC) would be very high indeed! We might as well have the insurance!
DH and I believe in insurance. As a general concept. We also have friends in similar circumstance to us (age, occupation and number of kids etc) who only have insurance if it's a legal requirement. Maybe it's a peace of mind thing? Some people are happy to cross each bridge as it comes others lose sleep worrying about "what if".
Personally we would cut back things like our football membership before PHC. We don't have pay TV but that would also go before the PHC.
From my experience it's not just life threatening situations you have to worry (or not worry) about in terms of the level of care you will recieve. There are MANY so called 'elective' conditions that could leave you on a waiting list for a very long time... and in discomfort if you don't have PHC. <---- *snap* Marydean!
My editting function is playing up... grrrr! Be back later...
Last edited by Bathsheba; May 31st, 2010 at 05:32 PM.
: Problem with glitchy cursor!!!!
We are borderline broke but will not ditch private health insurance. Instead, I called iselect and got a better option and we've saved ourselves $40 each month. For us, we went private to have DD, I ended up with medical issues that didn't appear until I was pregnant and then she had medical issues . We got wonderful surgeons and fantastic hospital experiences, all through the private sector. One of DD's problems was for a lump on her neck and we were told that the wait was 9 months in the public sector. We went private and saw the surgeon within a few weeks. I know what you're saying about your healthy lifestyle, but the way I see it, if something happens to DD where it isn't regarded as an emergency, but she was in any sort of pain at all, there is no way I'd want her to wait, or jeapordise her treatment to save some money. I think its better in the long run to stick with it and make cutbacks somewhere else.
DH and I have been discussing the same thing. IN fact, I'm pretty sure we are going to get rid of it - to pay for my gym membership. Which may sound stupid, but I would rather be fit than just sitting on my butt paying $160 a month for something I may never use
I wouldn't go withough PHI. I certainly would scale it down to less than what we have now as we will not be having anymore children.
My DS2 has two lots of grommets and adenoids removed. And has had 4 crowns on his teeth. All of this through private health insurance.
If I had to go through the public system with his ears it could have been at least 12mths wait and he would have been in alot pain and on constant AB's. If we had no PHI and decided to pay for his ear op's it would have cost us roughly $4,000 each time.
And with his teeeth if we went on the public register it could also have been a very long wait while his teeth deteriorated even further. This confirmed to us that we could not live with out it.
I know you went through Midwife and will continue...I had all my kids private, I am way ahead with PHI in cost and well being.
Like other's have mentioned, you just don't know what's around the corner.
As Bathesba said, you have to weigh up how much it would cost in the future or now in your end of financial year tax. As in would you be hit with the an extra Medicare Levy if you didn't have PHI.
We went through this same thing last year. Before that I was devoutly PHI.
We went down to one wage and in the 13years we'd had it, we hardly claimed a thing - less than a year's membership we got back. The premiums just kept going up and up.
We don't use the extras cover at all so we could have just gotten rid of that, but in all honesty hospital cover alone isn't that much cheaper.
We had always kept it before because we were over the income limit and would have had to pay the medicare levy (which was more for us), now that arguement was dead in the water we reassassed.
We got rid of it. Both of us are over 30 so yes there would be a levy applied should we change our minds. We have a little self insurance fund (well it's not little but it's for just incase IYKWIM?). Where we are going to live in the next 10years there is no private hospital or private surgical facilities and like you any baby we have will be had under the midwife/hospital system.
we have got basic hospital, only had it a few years, had both girls through public.. we got incase the girls ever needed an op that could wait 12 or so months that it would take in the public system, its paid off as DD2 is have a small op on monday, we only pay $74 a month for the family
I had considered dropping it too and totally understand anyone who would for quite a few reasons. Luckily though we didn't, as DH needed a double hernia op and from when he was diagnosed to the time he had the op was only about 3 or 4 weeks, as opposed to waiting in the public system for at least a year or more. He was working in construction and I don't know how we would have coped if he had have had to put up with the pain for that long...
If you needed to could you re-draw on your home loan or do you have savings you could dip in to to pay for any surgery that was required fairly quickly, that you may have to go on a waiting list for?
Like everyone else has mentioned, we also got phi to ease the pain and discomfort of waiting for the public sector if and when we need "elective" surgery (which I do). We only just got it a few months ago and have to wait out the waiting periods to use it unfortunately! I need all my wisdom teeth removed - two are impacted and one has a cyst around it and it can get very painful. I also need nasal surgery to straighten my septum. PHI will be very helpful for both these surgeries which I will be having as soon as the bloody waiting periods are up. I am also on the list at the public dental hospital - and have been for months now with no indication of when I may be scheduled for surgery! Furthermore, DS has seen so many specialists privately before we had PHI and we have paid out so much money for this because it was just not humane to let him wait for public treatment which would have taken months and months. Once I've had the procedures done we will drop down to basic cover as at the moment it is quite expensive for family top cover. Now I wish I had taken it out a year ago and I could have the surgeries already!
Are you able to keep the hospital cover and get rid of the extras? Like Bathsheba said, once you hit 31, you have to pay the Lifetime Health Cover, which is 2% for every year after your 31st birthday. what about having hospital only cover with an excess or co-payment so you can reduce your monthly premiums?
If you google for privatehealth dotgovdotau, it has all the policies offered by aussie health funds. Also keep in mind that Iselect only offers policies of a handful of companies.
On a personal level, I would try to keep my PHI, but i grew up with my parents having PHI, my husband didn't, so we argued quite a bit about getting it. For us, once we started seeing our FS, travelling back and forth, then the IVF, private hospital, and DH having a wisdom removed at the same hospital when DS was a week old...well, we have come out in front of what we have paid to our insurer.. I think this year might just see our insurer making money out of us
Private Health Insurance?
Reply With Quote
Some people are happy to cross each bridge as it comes others lose sleep worrying about "what if". 
Thanks
Bookmarks