Private Health insurance increases.. Grrr

[Hally]

Whilst health insurance is a grudge purchase, some things to consider around this:

- Medical inflation is currently running at between 8 - 10%. Much different to the general inflation rate
- As an insurance sector, private health insurers have the lowest margins for insurance. Typically health insuers run on margins of 3 - 7%. Guys in the business world would realise that this is quite low.
- Majority of health funds are mom-profit, owned by mutual organisations
- Most funds pay85 - 90 cents if each dollar paid in premium back on claims
- All health fund increases each year are actuary assessed and approved by the federal government. This is a stringent exercise to make sure health funds don't go broke
- Your increases this year may also be increase because rebate levels are going down
- Without private health insurance, the public health system would collapse. It is that simple
- In terms of self insurance, absolutely agree for things like dental, optical, physio etc. But for hospital you are dreaming! Just not worth it.


Cheers,

Andrew

[Franco Cozzo]

I don't see what all the rage is with private health care, the old man had top level cover for the family was I was born and still had to pay a few grand or something so since then he's never had it.

Mum's had two operations at Peter Mac in Melbourne with some fancy robot thing and she was in quick all through public system.

[galaxy xr8]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I don't see what all the rage is with private health care, the old man had top level cover for the family was I was born and still had to pay a few grand or something so since then he's never had it.

Mum's had two operations at Peter Mac in Melbourne with some fancy robot thing and she was in quick all through public system.

If you worked in the sector or with in the health care system like I do and seen 1'st hand some of the surgeons that they employ in some sectors you will easily re think your decision on not having private health and being able to “choose" your preferred surgeon.

If you can afford it, it is advisable.

[TheSneakiness]

We had private health through BUPA for both hospital and extras (extras mainly for glasses and teeth) however last year my son needed his tonsils and adenoids out so we opted for private through St. Andrews in Spring Hill. Everything was fine, op went well, recovery quick.

That was until we got the doctor's bill, the anaesthetist's bill and the medicine bill. Holy **** we went off and said why in the blue hell are we paying this amount of money a month when we still need to pay out of pocket expenses. We then found out that the particular doctor we had do the surgery was in cahoots (they paid each other kick backs)with the anaesthetist and the GP and wouldn't have done it otherwise with any other person.

So after telling them to get stuffed we told BUPA to stick their hospital cover and now we only have extras. I'm going to be switching that shortly as well.

[Ross 1]

Originally Posted by MDS69

I don't like the cost of private health insurance and especially how you can still be out of pocket so much but it is a necessary evil.

My 70 year old mum needs a knee replacement. Apparently the waiting list is huge for the public system. It is quicker for her to join a health fund for 12 months (waiting period) and also as a benefit get the doctor of her choice than it is to wait for the public system

I'm in the same situation, took nearly 3 years for my first knee op going public. When it was my turn great service, great surgeon. Have been waiting nearly 2 and half years for my next one with no clue as to how much longer, joined a health fund in June last year, so if the public system doesn't call by then I will get it done privately. Have been using Health.com, covers everything including extras and I am only paying $340 a month for four of us, seems good compared to some of the prices quoted on here.

[bobthebilda]

The wife had health insurance before we met (has since let it lapse), I have never had it. Two kids born in hospital, both kids have had 6 operations between them (including two heart operations), and nots including the stitch ups, bad flus etc, with numerous specislists follow ups. Total hospital costs must be over $200,000, total health premiums paid is $0. There are some horror stories out there where people are waiting years for hospital services, but they are the exception.

[champ]

Wow! We got health insurance when dd was two & I have to say, just between me & her, we would have had to sell the house to pay for our operations. But I must say in the meantime, its gone up by $2000 in just 8 years!!

[bungarra]

Our youngest had extremely large tonsils an adenoids. It was affecting his sleep, playing, speech etc. Public system as a priority due to size, 18 months wait, private, done and dusted in two weeks and that was only so I could get leave to be in the hospital with him, otherwise would have been two days.

3 kids, two born public system, one born private. Private won hands down overall.

Another example: Friends son (11) was into fitness as was whole family, always eating the good things, no sugary drinks, lollies etc. One day playing footy, collapses during the game. He was taken to hospital, found he had developed a dodgy heart valve. Told not to play sport until the specialist can fit him in for open heart surgery to fix valve (public system) 12 month minimum wait, they went private, done and dusted via keyhole surgery in a month. Now resumed playing football.

Depends how long you want to wait and what sort of treatment you want to get, not all states will do the advanced surgery due to costs, some will.

[zilo]

I gotta laugh at some of the posts in this thread.

"the long wait in the public hospital system when you don't have health insurance"

What a load of bull dust...with CASH you can get BETTER health care....when you want it and where you want it.

Cash will always get the best care...not which fund you are in...FFS

You won't be limited to some health fund's preferred hospitals and providers.

What about the nonsense of only getting about 25% back with dental bills?

They play a numbers game with you....they bet you won't get sick...you bet them you will.

They always win...that's why they make HUGE profits....think about that one.

[Franco Cozzo]

I'm guessing its probably like everyone trying to rip off insurance companies too, there is always insurance inflation happening.

If you offered them cash out of your own pocket they'd probably drop the prices.

Done some auto electrical work for insurance companies and the labour component doubles, cause you have to put up with their crap on how long it takes to pay out etc.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by Eaturbo

My bill for my kids at birth was $144,000. Lucky we had private health. Twins born at 30 weeks and 10 weeks in hospital. They will be waiting a while to get there money back from me.

Isn't the reason the bill was so high in the first place (or the fact you even saw the bill) because you had private health cover? What was your out of pocket expense if you don't mind me asking?


I ask because it seems that people with private cover like to justify the system by quoting these giant figures.


I have no idea how much my hernia repair cost about 10 years ago, but I'm sure it was more than a few weeks wages. That was in the public system. Didn't see the bill, didn't pay a cent. (directly anyway)

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by zilo

I gotta laugh at some of the posts in this thread.

"the long wait in the public hospital system when you don't have health insurance"

What a load of bull dust...with CASH you can get BETTER health care....when you want it and where you want it.

Cash will always get the best care...not which fund you are in...FFS

You won't be limited to some health fund's preferred hospitals and providers.

What about the nonsense of only getting about 25% back with dental bills?

They play a numbers game with you....they bet you won't get sick...you bet them you will.

They always win...that's why they make HUGE profits....think about that one.

Thats all well and good but you need the bulk cash sitting there in the first place. Most people dont have $100k+ waiting for a rainy day.

[MattSAU2XR8]

A few additional reasons why private cover is so expensive:

1. Most people who have private cover use it even in circumstances where they would be eligible for a public bed immediately. Eg. if they have pneumonia, a heart attack, a bleeding stomach ulcer, renal failure, a broken bone etc... So the insurance company is paying out for a treatment which the patient is already entitled to by Medicare, which they have paid for in their tax, well kind of, see below.. Kind of like sending the kids to a private school when you have already paid for access to the public school system. Flip side is that if no-one had private cover then the government would have to buy up ALL the private hospitals and operate them publicly, via an increased medicare surcharge, to manage the case load.

2. Available treatments are increasing in number and complexity and cases which would have previously been considered unmanageable or incurable are now being managed over the course of months in hospital, eg. frail elderly patients in ICU for a week or so and then rehab for a few months, or long courses of monoclonal antibodies ($$$) for cancer treatments.

In a perfect world (for the individual end user) you'd want to insure only for things that are not available in a timely fashion in the public system, eg. tonsillectomies for the kids, bariatric surgery if that's your thing, back surgery if you're a motor mechanic for example, and knee replacements for older folks. Unfortunately if everyone was able to do this then it'd be back to the government having to buy up and operate most of the private hospitals.

Unfortunately I can foresee a situation where the only way that the government is going to be able to continue to provide timely treatment even to those people without private cover, given that the number of available treatments is increasing, is to increase taxes gradually. The opposition will always shout down tax increases and talk about cutting costs, but this in effect means cutting wages, and no-one will like this either. And if healthcare costs are increasing by about 9 % per annum as someone said above, and wages are growing at 3 % or so then its clearly not wages that are the main problem.

Probably the only effective way to decrease your long term out of pocket costs for healthcare is to try and stay healthy as long as you can:
- Don't smoke
- Don't drink to excess or do other drugs
- Don't get sunburnt all the time, use sunscreen
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Exercise regularly but don't wear your joints out, eg. running on concrete, crazy lifts at the gym, poor swimming technique
- Don't crash cars or motorbikes
- Get a checkup once a year if you're over 40

On the bright side we're still a lot better off than other countries. I was in PNG a few years back and someone told me their health budget back then was about 1 dollar per person per year :-(

[Winter XR8]

I pay $235 per month for income protection (private health is on top of that). I have questioned why my premiums are so high and they say it's because I work in an underground mine. I replied by saying that if anything happened at work then I am covered by workers comp so why does it matter about my occupation, they replied by saying because it is a 24 hour cover they need to include your occupation. To cut it short, I didn't have income protection until about 1.5 years ago because of the cost, but 2 years ago I had an accident and completely blew my knee out, this occurred outside of work. End result was I needed a complete knee reconstruction. Ended up having 5 1/2 months off work unpaid. If I didn't have private health at the time and got in with a good surgeon within minimal waiting time, I could have been off work longer waiting in the public system as I wasn't allowed to return back to work until it was healed completely. Ended up costing me a lot of money and stress. You just never know when insurance is required.

[galaxy xr8]

And how many people here have ambulance cover ?.
It’s no different really, pay your ambo membership yearly and know that you are covered or take the risk and hope that one day you don’t need the Ambo’s and that bill that comes with it at the end of the day.

[CAMS290]

We have family cover with HCF, hospital and general extras, it has gone from $240 to $260 adults have to pay $450 excess, kids nil excess........ambulance cover is also included but we take out separate ambulance cover as HCF's cover is limited to $5000 for non emergency ambulance.