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
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