Private Hospitals.......soooo confused!

Hi Girls,

I have just recently found out that I am pregnant with my first which is very exciting but now that I have started looking around at the options my head is spinning!
I have private health insurance and would prefer to have my baby in a Private Hospital but the costs seem to be huge! Can anyone shed some light on this situation for me? I have been told by a few different Obs that the out of pocket expense could be around $3000 - $5000. This seems crazy doesn't it?
What are you thoughts on Private verses Public? Has anyone done both and what would you do again?

Thank you very much for your help with this as I don't know who else to talk to as I have not told anyone yet that I am pregnant.

I had my DS#1 as public as I didn't have the top cover for PHI at the time. I have it this time for #2 but will go public again to the same hospital. I personally don't see the reason to pay so much money to have a baby, when you can do it for relatively nothing, unless there are high risks for you or the baby like having a heart condition or something of the like.

I loved going private, I found peace of mind in the continuity of care with my ob and the private room once bubs came along where my husband also stayed the night for 6 nights was great to get used to my precious new bundle.

I thought the out of pocket expenses were worth it, but I could afford it. It does seem to be a luxury (ie not necessary) because your baby and yourself are in good hands in the public system too.

Congrats on your pg & H&H 9 months!

I have intermediate cover with HBF and this was my experience.
I had a baby in 2008 and went private, DS was also 6 weeks early and spent 2 weeks in special care.
If you speak with your provider, they should be able to give you some names of OBs who are fully covered (no gap). If you are with HBF you can do a search on thier web site.

Your costs would then be for each OB visit, the intial visit for me cost $220 of which I got a percentage back from Medicare, then $120 for each after that, then at 22 weeks there is a cost of $2500, each of which medicare will give you a pertentage back, you can also claim back ultra sounds, blood tests etc... Once you have hit the medicare threshold, which I think is going to go up in the new year to about $1500, you can claim back 80% out of pocket expenses. I suppose it would have been about $1500 out of pocket.

Insuarance covers mainly your hospital stay, so if you have top cover you will get a single room for a period of time, you will need to check with your provider.
I had intermediate cover and had an extended stay (3 weeks in hospital, DS 2 weeks). After getting cover for the first 5 days, it was going to cost me to to continue to have a single room, lets just say the amout did bring a tear to my eye and I requested a shared room to illiminate the cost, luckily for me the hospital I was at was lovley and I got the use of the single room and no out of pocket expenses.

By the way Congratulations on your PG

Hi and congratulations. My experience was with the public system and I was very happy with it, I went to the birth centre attached to the main maternity hospital here in Perth. I had a small group of midwives who cared for me throughout my pregnancy (saw my gp for first 20 weeks). The midwife who delivered Sarah did some of my antenatal classes and appointments, and also discharged us. She was a lactation consultant too. This cost me nothing. I went home after one night but had midwives come and see me for 5 days. The girls in my mothers group all went private, to the same hospital. They were also happy with how their care went. I don't know about costs, but I know that there was a one off insurance fee for the ob about $900? Anyway what I'm trying to say is everybody is different and there are plenty of ways to go IYKWIM. Good luck with your choice!

Oh and my husband got to stay with me in the birth centre which was fantastic!

Hi and congrats on your pregnancy.

I too had my 1st born in a Private Hospital and loved every bit of it. My baby was born 4 weeks early via C/S due to complications with me and he spent 4 days in the special care nursery. I loved the fact that I had a private room and that my DH could come and go whenever he pleased. He often didn't come in until 9 or 10 at night and would stay until 1 or 2 in the morning due to his work etc.
Yes it cost us some money to go private but that didn't bother us.My Ob charged about $170 for initial visit and then I was bulk billed until 20 weeks and then I had to pay $1800 and got 80% back through Medicare. I paid for my scans and blood tests and claimed those back through Medicare too. It then cost me $200 excess to stay in the hospital and my health fund covered everything there ie theatre fee, anathesist(sp)special care nursery for DS and 1 week stay for me.

If I didn't have complications I think I would still go Private but thats just my personal opinion. Good luck with whichever way you decide to go :)

Congratulations on your pregnancy :)

I think it comes down to what hospitals are in your area? For us, with #1, we went public. Had great care with the midwives during labour, (did shared care with our GP) not bad on the continuity with the nurses, but being young, they seemed to be a little judgemental of me.

#2, our IVF bubba, we went private. Mainly we wanted continuity with our OB, and a private room. The nurses/midwife turnover was astounding! I don't think I had the same person in my room twice in the whole 5 days i was there. Could have been that particular time, there was some staff problems? They were all over the place with my medications, and on night #2 when I started vomiting, DH reckons he had seen someone give me a second dose painrelief not long after my first.. Communication between them wasn't the best.

Our professor OB's fee was around $800, then for delivery (c/s) he charged the no gap our fund pays out, which i think was around $1800?? I can't quite remember now... we did have out of pocket for the anaethetist and paed, but after we claimed the paeds bill went from around $1000 to just over $100 out of pocket. Obviously that will all depend on what your medicare threshold is sitting at as well. Plus our visits to him, and we had to pay for blood tests as well.

If I was to do it again, I would go with the private option, only because I would want to go with our OB again. The public hospital we went to had a better continuity of care amongst the nurses/midwives, but we also had an 8 year gap between #1 and #2...things could be different now for all I know

Goodluck making a decision :)

hi there and congrats!

i suppose that there are many things to consider when making the decision to public or private.
i recommend checking out the services available at each.
Pros (IMO) for Private: As a general rule, private can give you a room to yourself (unless it is mega busy!). it can also give you a longer stay (5ish days), hubby can usually stay overnight at least once post birth. because they do tend to be smaller (and in my experience) you might find that you get better access to the on-call lactation consultant/midwives while you stay there. also, some private hossy's have hotel transfer (like to the hyatt etc) which i have heard are really relaxing while still maintaining full medical backup and midwifery support. Also, going private means that you see the same OB for each pg visit, although his/her presence isnt garuanteed at the birth (they all tend to do public duty/go on holidays LOL!)

On the downside, private costs, public doesnt! we paid nearly $4k upfront. You do need to put in a form if you do decide to go private (i recommend it at least lol) for the medicare levy threshold (not sure if that is the right name, but they will know what you are talking about). and like Rumpleteaser mentioned once you go over the 1500 you get around 80% back.
the BIG issue with private are the high intervention rates (ie ceseareans). because private are usually less well equipped for full-blown emergency situations, they do have really strict policy regarding birth and how long it takes. and this has bred a culture of intervention (in my experience it was an uphill battle to refuse pain-relief...which i just wasnt prepared for as they pushed this on me once i was in labour!).
Also, you are NOT garuanteed to have to your OB there. so despite paying squidloads of cash there will still be the probabilty of a stranger helping you deliver.

Pros for Public: They are equipped for pretty much every situation that might arise if the pregnancy/birth doesnt go to plan. so if bubs decides to make an early arrival, there is no risk of them being transferred away from you (which could be the case in a private).
Public hospitals have lower intervention rates! you may find that you are able to stick your birth plan with alot more success and avoid the pressure to 'perform' to the clock when birthing.
Public is FREE!
Some public hospitals have birth centres!!!!! (this is where i will try to go next time!).

On the downside, the biggest IMO is the feeling of non-continuity of care. but many hossy's are trying to change this by undertaking new models of midwifery team care (where you are looked after by a team of 3 so are garuanteed to know at least one person in the birth room.
it is a public hospital and space is an issue. so shared rooms are the norm (unless you are at the birth centre or transferred from a birth centre where they try their uptmost to room you solo).
there can be really long waits for appointments (a couple of hours at some is not unheard of!).

In any case, i would take a really close look at what each offers and what you would like to have at hand, and also, it might be worth considering what kind of support you want, i highly recommend the services of a birth support/advocate type person like a doula/ind midwife. they can really be amazing source of support and help guide you through some of these massive decisions. but that is JMO of course lol!

good luck with it all!

I went private with DD, because I just thought that's what you did when you had PHI. i had a great ob and she didn't charge a gap nor any mid preg management fee. My most expensive outlay for the hospital stay was the aneasthetist and the pead (PHI doesn't cover you until you actually get to the hospital). Only a portion of each visit/scan is covered by medicare so yes you do have to outlay a lot. Also the midwives in the delivery suite - you never even meet them until you're in labour. How can you know that oyu will work well together or even feel comfortable?

With DS I wen though the public hospital (in a small town now and that's all there is for 200km) I saw the midwives. I was highrisk thoughout and I had fantastic care that was personal and continuous - probably more so than with the private ob. The midwives in the clinic looked after me and my baby throughout.
I used phi at the hossy and had a private room and that covered my theatre costs as well.

I would use the public system with just my PHI at the hospital again.

HI,

I had DS at a private hospital in Brisbane and other than $60 for the OB visits it cost me nothing extra except for scans and blood tests but I figured I would have to pay for them in the public system anyway.

With DD again went private, the OB fees were a little higher but we did get some of that back from medicare I think??? I don't remeber there being any other expenses other than a contribution to PLI which I think was maybe $300, it certainly wasn't a lot.

For me it was worth it as we spend it on the fees each month so we might as well use it. It gave me a longer recovery time in hospital to rest and bond with bub until I had to go home to the day to day stuff and I got to choose my dr. The double beds and rooming in with Dh was an added bonus.

Good luck making your decision

i had private health cover but opted to go public hospital purely cause the reputation of the public hospital in the large town i live in was better than the private hospital here, example the baby care unit was more updated with equip, etc ...

so, i went into a public hospital as a ** private patient ** which meant i would have first choice of a private room (if there was a private room left available hour of birth) ... which i did end up getting (and if you don't the hospital will reimburse you) ... the public hospital here was encouraging private health insurance users to use their hospital so i was given the choice of a large summed gift voucher eg, for use at a day spa, etc ... i chose a $500 gift voucher for a local baby shop :D

i was a patient part of what's called a Primary Midwifery Care Program whereas there are 4 midwives in this team, you meet all 4 but 2 are particular close to looking after you during your pregnancy ... one of which is allocated to be at your birth but if she can't for whatever reason her partner midwife will be there at your birth.

i was also a high-risk patient and was given such brilliant care with the midwives & if i needed to see a OB i could if any concerns occurred.

***** SO, THAT'S ANOTHER OPTION FOR YOU TO LOOK INTO if the public hospital near you has the " Primary Midwifery Care Program " ;)

I've done both public and private with my own ob and would choose private any day. The standard of care of me post birth at the private was heaps better than the public and there were no problems with DH coming and going as he pleased, even though I was in a private room both times :rolleyes: stupid visiting rules at the public hospital. We needed NICU care both times too and the care at the private was much better because NICU was within the maternity ward and not separate as it was at the public.

We have top PHI and the only OOP was for the ob's premium which was due at 20 odd weeks, but that put us over the Medicare Safety Net threshold so we got a lot of it back anyway. I think we were only OOP by about $1000 in the end, but it does vary from dr to dr.

HTH and all the best for your pg!