Health Insurance for a family?

My DH has had health insurance for 10 years now. I've never had it but it's something we've looked into for me mainly for OBGYN purposes but decided it wasn't worth it. I'm a few years off turning 30 (so don't have to worry about the loading yet) but have decided we should look at doing it for me now, as well as the kids. We are looking at mid range cover... So really minor dental, optical, physio, chiro, cover in a private hospital are what we really want/need.

I'm wondering what type of cover you have, who it's with & how much?

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather :)

I am with Australian Unity. I pay around $185 a fortnight (with rebate reduction already taken off) for fairly top level cover. The only thing I could do higher is drop my excess to $0 instead of $500. I really need to ring and see if i can reduce it as i don't need it for obstetrics cover. I chose it because it covers homebirth if we are able to / choose to birth at home in the future.

If you want it for OBGYN purposes, you have a 12 month waiting period before you can access any of the rebates for them, so you may want to look at covers ASAP if you're TTC :)


Sent from the land of "iSomethings" so forgive me for any spelking misstaks ;)

Hi Enchanted,
I'm also with Australian unity for top extras. I don't have hospital or obstetrics. I decided on no obstetrics and to go public because the rates of Caesarian births and interventions are way lower in public hospitals.
Before choosing cover, I added up what I'd spent on all medical, optical, dental, massage etc so I got a really good idea of if it would be worth it and how much I would save by having cover. It worked out I was far better off with private health insurance that without.
So I LOVE my health insurance! Because I did the calculations, my insurer has payed me way more than I've paid them!
So I suppose my tip would be, doing the sums is really worth it, so you know what kind of cover you will be shopping for. Good luck!

Btw, I pay about $35 a fortnight

We have basic hospital and recently took up basic extras cover, $200 excess (total of $400 a year, we've used private hospital twice already this year so don't pay again) its either $115 or $125 a month for the family. Our extras s good, we get on average 60% back on minor dental.

Olive, who is that through?

I used to pay something ridiculous (almost $300/month - hospital and extras). I cancelled it though because it wasn't worth it!

I have mid level hospital and mid level extras through medibank (corporate cover)

I only take up the hospital cover as every 4 years I require a new insulin pump for my daughter, and they cover it (and at a cost of $8000-$9000 its a lot cheaper to pay them)

I only join for the 12 months prior to needing it an then cancel once we have the pump.

Depending on finances I keep the extras on which I think I get sound 70% back on most things. I used the dental for dd and chiro for me but that's it so far (will use optical once ive had bub)

I pay $75 a fortnight and our excess if $250 (for me only, DD is free)

I did get obstetrics but fell pregnant too soon so can't use it (and I'm happy with my midwife anyway)

Schonell I'm with HIF

I'm with AHM, pay about $45p/wk for DH, DS and I which gives us basic hospital (no obstetrics) and mid level extras. I've been really happy with them and I compare quotes every 12 months to make sure they're competitive.

We just swapped our cover to GMHBA, I was really happy with the options. Went with top extras plus a basic hospital cover.

DH and I are with bupa (used to be mbf but now they have merged) we pay $215 per month for private room in private hospital and intermediate extras. We normally get the full amount back on Chiro/physio which gets used a lot! We are in our third round of ivf at the moment so ours has well and truly paid for itself!!!

We're with Medibank and pay I think about $260 per month. I didn't join until I was 34 so I had a bit of a loading on my part of the premium.

When we joined we got top cover on everything because we knew we'd be having babies. Our policy includes no excess for private hospital stays - this bub's birth won't cost us a cent (well, except for the gazillion dollars leading UP to her birth!!)

I've recently looked at downgrading our health cover after DD3 is born to save a bit of money and TBH we wouldn't save that much compared to how much we would lose in terms of ancillaries like dental, physio etc.

I have single parent family (DH is covered by his work) and its $120 per fortnight for top hospital and top extras. I was going to cut down after the next baby is born, but now I'm going though a Birth Centre anyway, which is public. But I'm not sure what level to go down to and it doesn't drop all that much.

My cover, even though top extras, doesn't cover an OB. I wish I had looked up that bit before joining... But when I had DS I got 80% back anyway. Now that the Medicare rebate has changed, we would have been $5000 out of pocket if we went through an OB.

We are with defence health. Pay about $230 a month for top hospital and standard extras with a $800 (per policy) excess. if it was for a child admission there is no excess. We dropped it down to a big excess as we werent using it and it saved us about $400 a year on premium. So if we used it every second year would be the same cost.

Thanks for the replies! We're still researching, it's going to be so expensive but DH's has just gone up to $400 per quarter.

DCookie & FL- DH is currently with Australian Unity, so they're very much being considered.

Hope- We don't need OBGYN, this is our last baby so that's no longer something we need.

I have so many pages open right now doing comparisons!! DH's next payment is due at the start of June, so I'm hoping to get it all done & organised so we can start the new policy before then!

We are also with Defence Health. I *think* we pay between $230 and $280 a month for top hospital and top extras. Our excess is $500 payable on admission to hospital (regardless of if it is day case or overnight admission) but the excess is only payable once a year and there is no excess for DD. I am hoping to downgrade our hospital cover after we are finished having babies. I'll always have top extra's as I use physio a lot.

I'm with Aust Unity too, swapped over to get home birth cover (more than 12 mths before the birth so I could access it). I'm getting heaps more back on extras than i was with my gormer fund, but it's more expensive. We sat down and calculated the approx benefits. We get a discount for having NRMA membership too.

I am with HCF and our cover is basically what you are looking for. We pay around $200/month. My biggest piece of advice is shop around and don't hurry. The difference in costs for the same things can be hundreds. Ask them as many questions as you need to get your head around what is best for you and your fam. I know it is expensive but I am really glad we have it, especially where our health system seems to be heading and the waiting lists are getting longer and longer. My g/f needs to get her sons tonsils out she is on a waiting list for an appt - crazy!! The entire process will take approx 2 years. I can get in and get the op within the month. We are making other sacrifices to make sure we can always keep it as we feel it is important especially with the kids getting older and are soon to start playing contact sports and if they are anything like their father our PHI is going to get a massive work out, LOL! Ours also give each family member two free dental check ups each year which is great to me.
Good luck.

I would call them and discuss it as they can help you sort out and understand it better plus I also found out it was cheaper when speaking to them than what was on the internet.

You can try the i select dot com website (all one word) for comparisons.

We pay $225 a month for a family of 5 with top hospital and top extras that is on a corporate plan though with Bupa.

Im also interseted in insurance but I was wondering if anyone could tell me about this loading. I have just turned 30 but my DF is only 28. Do I have to get insurance before im 31?

I think is actually 32

DH had to make sure he was covered by 31. I'm younger than him as well.

We're in the states and currently pay about $580 a month! :lol: That is for very basic cover for my H and I (massive $3K excess) and good cover for the kids as we claim a lot of therapies. Looking forward to being back in Australia when it comes to health insurance!

Wow meow that's massive!

Does your employer contribute to health care at all?