A boring ass question i know, but I have no idea what to make of it so I thought i'd put it to the ever-worldly QGL crowd... :)

Should I get private health insurance? I was until recently covered as a dependant under my parents plan, but now that I'm 23 i'm expected to pay for my own, but I was shocked to find it's like 85 odd bucks a month! What a rort! So what's the verdict, is this something i should cough up the moneys for? Or is the public health system generally quite adequate?

PS. i've just finished uni and about about to start working if that means anything..

no. its not necessary if you're healthy and not a dangerous person.

i probably woudlnt bother until i was 30 at least, or had a family:

i didnt even bother signing up until i was older than 30, even though that attracts a penalty, i just never needed it:

Yeah that's clever :/

You may not be dangerous but some other spaz can always back over you in a carpark by accident. No way to avoid bad luck.

It's pricey, but if you ever take a proper injury and need to stay hospitalised for a while you'll recoup years worth of contributions (not really worth the trouble IMHO), and you can in any case get some of your contributions back in the form of member services which most people never take advantage of (certain quotas per year of useful stuff like massage, eye checks, dental etc)...

just remember this: sitting in a hospital bed costs $1200/day without any operations.

the health system limits demand either by price or queuing. i sure as f*** don't want to join the queue. my hospital cover on $500 excess with mbf costs roughly $40/fortnight.

my grandma spent 4 weeks in hospital for some heart thing and the bill was roughly $120,000. luckily it was covered by insurance, so she didn't wait and was attended to straight away by top talent.

even if you're healthy you only need one haymaker to come in and the insurance paid for itself over your whole lifetime. the whole idea of insurance is to pay a modest amount on a regular basis to protect against that one freak occurence that would otherwise send you broke.

plus the longer you wait past 30 a penalty loading attaches for every year of your life thereafter.

last edited by infi at 11:26:19 29/Jul/08

public system is fine, as long as you dont mind waiting:

when i broke petals arm requiring surgery in melbourne, the work done in the public system was EXCELLENT:

it just took a few days before they could operate:

that was the catalyst for us to go private, coz we didnt really want to wait again in future and we had the money:

when we had bub at sunnybank private the bill was massive, but our fund picked up most of it (we still got stung for stuff that wasnt covered, like epidural)

last edited by Spook at 11:28:18 29/Jul/08

the missus and i have private health insurance, but be warned...

visits to private emergency departments are not covered at all, and you need to have some spare money around for out of pockets - ie: pathology costs, other medical costs.

my missus had her knee done and she got a bill from the anesthetist.

otherwise do it, if you have an issue that can't wait, you can usually go in straight away.

pfft insurance... worse than gambling coz you are gambling against your own best interest! they prey apon the fear of the weak! ;D

My mum died with a brain tumor this May (Glioblastoma, its nasty), she was in a private hospital for a good two-three months and private health cover pretty much came to the party interms of convering most of the costs. Whilst she didn't have much of a chance, the level of service and how quickly were were able to get surgens in was pretty good.

that sucks, scuzzy :'(

they prey apon the fear of the weak!

i know a guy that uses fear against those that prey on the fearful

lol qld health

If you earn over $55k PA, I thought the 1% medicare levi hit you for a large sum of moneys that gets waived if you have private insurance. Money better spent on private rather than tax fees.

it was 75K but now under gay rudd that has been increased to 150k, so that all the people between 75k and 15k pour into the public system stressing it even further.

suppose its good for private health insurance carriers in a way as the short waiting times for private hospital care will get even shorter.

No, it was ~55k as you said, but it has been increased.

I thought it was 50k

yeah my mistake:

The surcharge is calculated at the rate of 1% of taxable income. It is in addition to the Medicare Levy of 1.5%, which is paid by most Australian taxpayers. The Medicare Levy Surcharge is imposed on individuals earning over the threshold who do not have an appropriate level of hospital insurance. The threshold is $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for families. The threshold will rise to $100,000 for individuals and $150,000 for families, pending legislative changes.

edit: /repost

Just to re-iterate.
If you got to a private enmergency room you will be bent over for the full cost until they are admitted (usually after several thousand dollars worth of investigations).

So the next time it happened we went ok off to the public ER... And after she got admitted said could she be admitted as a private patient.

It turns out you only get refunds on things with medicare numbers. So say for instance they have a test involving radiation and they have an artifical limit of 1 a year. And its not like you get warned about it, the doctors just say we need to do it. You wear the complete cost.
(ps. that is on Medibanks top coverage).

If it is in public its covered. Same hospital, same doctors same treatment (hell she was in a shared mixed sex room). But we made the mistake of trying to the right thing and use our insurance... never ever again.

I reckon if you work full-time and can afford the $70-odd dollar monthly fee, it's definitely worth it, even if you're healthy, based on the "just in case" philosophy.

I wear contact lenses so the money I save on the lenses alone over a year makes it worthwhile for me. But regardless I would still pay to have the insurance for my own peace of mind...

We didn't have private health insurance when we had our kids. And I can say I'm glad we didn't in hindsight.

Everything went smoothly (maybe PHI is valuable if it doesn't go smoothly?), couldn't complain at all. And the best thing is it cost us zero. Everything was covered. Actually I tell a lie, we had to pay $6 a day for the TV access.

Had her own room as well. They even let me use the happy gas, although it didn't do anything :(

Might b worth it if you go to the doctor and s*** alot.

I'm 30, my wife is 29 and our two sons 3 and 5 have never had any reason to go to a doctor though so it would have been an epic waste of money.

Obes, I don't really get what you're saying - you're saying that your private health insurer wouldn't cover some stuff unless it was explicitly covered w/ a medicare number?

I wear contact lenses so the money I save on the lenses alone over a year makes it worthwhile for me.

Yeh, I try to get a few physio appts. here and there to cover it as well.

Might b worth it if you go to the doctor and s*** alot.

Might be worth reading the actual thread, where it's understood after discussion that it helps immensely with accidents and hospital situations. You know, a sudden, unexpected situation that doesn't necessarily rely on any history of going "to the doctor and s*** alot".

And most likely by "going to the doctor a lot" you mean going to a GP, in which case private insurance doesn't make any difference to what you pay.

so it would have been an epic waste of money.

unless something bad had happened, in which case it would have been worthwhile.

Sup dude!!
You back in Aus yet?
Hope ya got my bday message on ya mobile! :)

With your back dude, I'd probably consider it, assuming you still need treatment every now and then.
Also NiB apparently do cover for $10 a week, which is pretty decent.
I don't have it, probably should, but i have other things to spend my money on!
But will definately have it by the time im 30!

meh, if u can afford private health insurance its a good idea. I like the idea of being able to choose what surgeon you want to do your surgery. Not all surgeons are created equal, and I have a specific list of surgeons recommended to me to repair my ruptured ACL that I can specifically go to, instead of just taking whatever potential n00b the public system gives me.

There's also the concept of not expecting the rest of the community to pay for your health if you can afford to take care of it yourself...

Obes, I don't really get what you're saying - you're saying that your private health insurer wouldn't cover some stuff unless it was explicitly covered w/ a medicare number?

Trog for treatments in hospital over a certain amount and outside of the things covered by your extras package ... Correct. The devil is in the fine print.

In theory its meant to stop money being spent on questionable treatments.

Unfortunately it also means that some treatments that have a limit put on them (eg. some scans using radiation) may not get covered. As it turns out there is another number they can use for that same treatment that has no limit luckily she was working at that hospital and was able to get the accounts etc modified. But she only did that after trying to do things the normal(proper) way.

From our experiences ... Private health insurrance is great for elective stuff. But f*** me if you get in real trouble its not worth all the dramas. Go to a normal ER and take whatever they give you and once you are nice and stable then transfer to private or you could end up with a bill over 10 grand.

i reckon everyone should pay like $20 a month to me, to prevent me from say... punching you in the face. not that i am the sort of person that randomly punches people in the face, but you know... just in case! it could happen from a set of unforseen circumstances !@#! can't help bad luck n wotnot! everyone can afford $20 a month, so like stop being cheapskates n hand over the loot! :D

you will have to post your bank account details for me demon;

i definately dont evar want to get punched in teh face!

Do you trust the government to take care of when you're most vulnerable. Private health insurance is a must if you're prepared to put your health above your finances.

About 3 years ago I went off to my doctor with some flank pain and a fever of 39c. 12 hours later I was on the operating table at Allamanda private hospital (gold coast) getting a cholecystectomy for a gall bladder perforation. If I didn't have the surgery as soon as possible then I was probably looking at death.

I'm not sure a public hospital would of had the resources to operate immediately. My insurance (MBF) paid for everything except the blood tests ($180) and an MRI scan which was about $600.

Small price to pay imo.

i've never had my house burn down or my car stolen but i still hold house insurance and car insurance.

Anyway, >$100k here and family income >$150k so we're paying either way.

hahah orb you sucker!@#!#@!

haha sucked in your family earns more than $150k, suck it down fella!

all that money and hes still driving a $10000 car, lolz!!!

wicked. thanks for the advice guys

sup fireblood! yup just got back. didnt get your message for some ghey reason my phone didnt store any while i was away :(

sup fireblood! yup just got back. didnt get your message for some ghey reason my phone didnt store any while i was away :(

Damn :( Well I sent it! On the day even! lol! I was gonna send an email but got completely side-tracked with work/study etc!
Good luck with ya new job dude! I am sure you'll smash it! Have to catch up at some stage, when im not totally flat out :( Argh assignments! :(
(PS I hope ya did well in ya final subjects etc )

I'm not sure a public hospital would of had the resources to operate immediately.

Yes, yes they do.

I'm not sure a public hospital would of had the resources to operate immediately.

And thats the sort of mentality that people have that makes private health insurance seem like a need.

You should only have private health insurance for three reasons.
1. You feel you need a separate room.
2. You are trying to avoid long queues for elective surgery
3. You actually believe the cost is smaller than the rebates you will get from it (my parents had this when my siblings had braces, as the money they got back was greater than the money they paid for the insurance).

Most people seem to have health insurance based on the irrational fear of 'what happens if one day i get meilignmsintiossisalitis and ill die if i go public.
no.
you won't.

My mate had his ankle dislocated + double fracture. Went to RBH. Had his surgery cancelled 4 times or so over 4 days or so. Didn't get it operated on until > 10 days after it had happened.

I am unconvinced that the public system is fantastic sorry.

I'm pretty sure public health workers (nurses and whatnot) get paid more then private workers. At least they were a couple of years ago.

In public system if your illness is life threatening then you will certainly get the operation ASAP, they have all the equipment that private hospital does.

Misdiagnosis can happen with any doctor, public or private.

There are LOTS of hidden costs with Private health insurance. Just because your insured don't think you wont have to pay big bills.

if you think private health insurance is only for getting your wisdom teeth removed and the odd ingrown toenail, then you're an imbecile.

4. You want to get a specialist opinion on a (non-urgent) medical problem and don't want to join the queue for the public hospital specialist outpatients' department.

I need to see a neurologist for opinion, and my private health insurance has enabled me to get an appointment with one within 6 weeks, as opposed to if I went through the public system, where my medical problem would be ranked as non-urgent, and I would be seen in upwards of 12 months...

Seriously, I refer patients to public hospital outpatients and the waiting lists for non-urgent reviews are PHENOMENAL...

My gf recently had a infection which spread into her blood, took her to the RBH, public. Took perhaps 2 days to get her a bed/room etc and she wasn't really a bad case, she needed to lay down, but they had a few movable beds etc available. They gave her the drugs she needed etc (every 6 hours) and kept her for 5-6 days and released her, with a prescription etc for the next 2 weeks.

Yes there was some waiting, but for free medical treatment it wasn't that bad at all!

all that money and hes still driving a $10000 car, lolz!!!

Don't you know cars are a depreciating asset? Whereas coke and hookers are always appreciated!

spooks sunk over 10k into his car and still has a $10000 car lols

you know someone who will give me 10000 for it?

10000 CENTS LOL

hehe

f***, Existence, way to kill a f***ing good thread with your s***. f***.