Obstetrician costs in the private system

[OceanPrincess]

Hi,

Surely I'm not the only one who has not paid anywhere near that much out of pocket????

A lot of it depends on how much the Obs charges versus how close you are to the Medicare safety net.

I paid:
$150 deposit for Hospital (not sure if this is refundable or what exactly but not from Medicare, this is just an out of pocket expense)
$280 for first Obs visit, of which I received $120 back from Medicare

We also paid for scans and some other tests, all of which we claimed back through Medicare and all of which contributed towards the safety net threshhold.

Then I paid nothing more for the Obs until I received the "big" bill at 20 weeks, which was around $3,200. However at this point DH and I were well over the threshhold with Medicare and we received 80% of that back - so over $2,500. All up out of pocket is just short of $1,000 so far.

And for the care I have received from my Obs, I am delighted with this cost and was more than happy to pay it.

I've been told that all hospital costs for the delivery will be handled by my health insurance - so we will pay our $150 excess and that is it.

This includes any anaesthetists costs or (hoping we don't need it) pediatrics.

I think the important thing is that it is not really so much about how much the Obs costs (though I'm sure there's a good deal of variation and its definitely worth ringing around if you're concerned) - it is about what your private health insurance covers (for hospital costs) and how close you are to the Medicare safety net (for costs prior to birth).

Medicare can tell you how close you are by the way - give them a call.