Congratulations on your pregnancy eworc! I'll do my best to answer your questions...

1. From what I know, your private health insurance only covers your time in hospital. Your OB fees can only be claimed through medicare. With my OB they do make a direct claim on my private health insurance but that is for the actual birth.

2. By the sounds of things OB2 is the cheaper option. In my experience the OB's rooms are pretty accurate when they tell you your out of pocket expenses.

3. There are quite a few other costs. Your scans, NT screening and blood tests are all claimable through medicare. We're at 22 weeks now and so far have been out of pocket around about $600 for those bits and pieces after claiming them through medicare. I think all up I am expecting the tests/scans etc to leave us about $1000 out of pocket, but it depends on whether we will need further scans down the track.

The other thing to consider is when you will reach your medicare saftety net. When you've had out of pocket medical expenses of more than about $1,050 you get 80% back on everything. But some reason (not sure why) some OB's have a fee that you can't claim towards your medicare safety net.

Whether or not you have additional costs for your hospital stay depends on your level of private cover. We have an excess of around $250 and then have to make a co-payment for each night we're there, but those costs are capped at about $500. To find out just give your insurer a call and they will be able to tell you your situation. The other things that you could have further out of pocket expenses for are an anaesthetist (I've heard an epidural can be up to $1,000) or a paediatrician.

Hope this helps! Good luck with everything!