SIVF Costs. Should we go with or without Private Health Insurance???

[Motherhood here i come!]

HI there Guys,

Am only new on here but was wondering if you might be able to help us out.

Were about to start IVF treatment with Sydney IVF and im not sure whether to up my PHI and pay the extra premium or pocket the money and use this towards the cost of the IVF process.

Were with Dr Lok at SIVF and we need to undergo Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis as well as the normal IVF process.

Im insured with Manchester Unity but at present, dont have the IVF cover (Thats ok cause if we decide to use health cover as well as medicare, we will wait the 12mths) I currently pay $68/mth and if i choose to include IVF in my cover it will go up to $140/mth.

So my husband and i are confused, do we just go ahead minus the PHI and use the money we would of paid on the increased premium for the IVF as well as any medicare rebate or do we utilise the PHI and wait another 12mths.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Sara69]

Hi MHIC

We're also with SIVF and about to start PGD in late October. We had a meeting with the accountant pretty early on. For us it means about $4000 to $5000 out-of-pocket after Medicare Safety net.

As far as I understood my private health insurance only helps with the egg retrieval and the embryo transfer as everything else is outpatient and not covered. SInce I have an $500 excess to pay if I get anything at all it's only a few hundred dollars at the most. So don't think it's worth it getting private health cover and to wait 12 months.

One thing to consider though is to get pregnancy cover if you want to go to a private obstetriacan since you're hopefully going to fall pregnant soon.

I am with Dr gee at SIVF - a good friend of mine was with Dr Lok last year and fell preganant in her frist cycle!

One tip with the costs I did the first base line ultrasound with RPA as an out patient instead of going to Sydney Wonen's Ultrasound where Dr Gee wanted tos end me first whcih means I saved about $100 out-of-pocket.

Sara

[nic]

Welcome to BB
Have you checked with your PHI as to how long the waiting period is for IVF? Our health insurer originally was a 24 month waiting period, but changed it to 12 months just before we found out we would have to go the IVF path. Might be worth finding out (if you haven't already)

Will paying the extra premium give you any extra benefits that you will use after IVF as well?

Have to duck off, sorry for the short reply..

Nic

[Motherhood here i come!]

Hi Guys,

Thanks so very much for your replies.

red lady, congratulations and good luck with your first cycle. Reading your post really reassured me. I mean, its great to know that there are others out there in the same boat so to speak. IVF on its own is definately mind blowing but to add in PGD to the mix as well, we'll leave it at that. Re the private obstetrician,I have friends who conceived naturally and then had a few issues with the delivery. Long story short, had an emergency c section and bubs spent time in NICU and all up it cost them nothing as it was public so dont think im too worried about going to a private Obstetrician. Might pick her brain a little more

Nic, Yeah i have checked with our PHI and the waiting period is 12mths for both IVF and pregnancy related areas etc. Paying the extra premium ups the level of cover overall as i understand as well as include IVF and Pregnancy realted expenses (I dont really need or would use a high level of cover for things like physio etc). Ive worked out the $$$ and if i dont take PHI then i save an extra $1400 which i can use towards IVF. Not to mention my PHI only covers retrevial and placing back of the eggs. SO yeah, decisions decisions.

Thanks again ladies. I think im still a little undecided by the whole do we or dont we re PHI. We have seen Dr Lok and both hubby and i need to have blood tests, i need an ultrasound and hubby needs the "boys" tested and then go back to him. Would really love to go ahead without the PHI cause i dont think i could wait the 12mths LMAO.

Thanks again.

Hope to hear some more and red lady, again, good luck with everything.

[Nixon]

Hi, We are with Manchester Unity as well and found out we had to go down the IVF path around the middle of this year. I already had the IVF included level of cover and had done for around 24months so we didn't have to wait. I think we ended up getting back around $1350 from Private Insurance and 5500 from Medicare - I think.

SIVF does a VERY detailed finacial breakdown for you (not sure if you have got to that stage yet - we didn't get to that until after all our blood/semen analysis was complete.) So, you will know exactly what your out of pocket expenses will be. You could mention to them (SIVF) that you are looking at getting the higher level of cover and ask them to do 2 breakdowns - 1 that includes Private and one that doesn't and then decide.

Anyway - Dr Lok is ACE. We were successful with our first cycle with him also. Can't tell you how much we appreciated his bed-side manner, his patience, understanding and his sense of humor. He is the best.

Good luck with it.