Hi, I used to have private health insurance with medibank private until they told me that I would have to pay a $3 -4,000 gap after having my baby in a private hospital. I decided to go Public but have found that the costs associated with going public differ from hospital to hospital. Originally I was booked into a hospital with a midwife clinic so I only had to pay a $65 gap for my ultrasounds and $95 for antenatal classes, all other costs were bulk billed by the hospital. Now that we are about to move interstate things have become a little more expensive as the area we are moving to doesn't bulk bill so we have to pay $70 for each GP visit, the full cost of almost $300 per ultrasound and $300 per obstetrician visit. The new hospital does have a midwife clinic but limited places so you need to book in as soon as you find out your pregnant so we missed the clinic at the new hospital. The good thing though is that as long as you keep your receipts you can claim alot of it back on Medicare. The best thing to do is check with your preferred hospital as they'll be able to give you a full list of costings up front.

Sharon