Which Medical Insurance to choose?

[lifeisgood]

Will I be needing private medical insurance apart from Medicare?
Which are the better insurance companies are out there ?

[anj1976]

we thought of getting pvt medical insurance but then decided against it, we did get the ambulance cover for all 3 of us for 5 years.

[naoto]

You do need ambulance cover. This is just the minimum safety net you can get and costs almost nothing!
For more "extras" look at Private Health Insurance - iSelect

[KimMii]

Waiting lists for Australian hospital treatments can be very long. I'd recommend obtaining private health care, for which you can claim a 30% tax rebate (although it is my understanding the current Federal Govt is trying to scrap this scheme).

[naoto]

Originally Posted by KimMii

Waiting lists for Australian hospital treatments can be very long. I'd recommend obtaining private health care, for which you can claim a 30% tax rebate (although it is my understanding the current Federal Govt is trying to scrap this scheme).

You are wrong, you are not claiming the 30% tax rebate. The 30% is paid directly and deducted from the actual premium you pay.
The wait is not long at all, in hospitals either.. you are not providing correct information at all!

[_shel]

Originally Posted by naoto

You are wrong, you are not claiming the 30% tax rebate. The 30% is paid directly and deducted from the actual premium you pay.
The wait is not long at all, in hospitals either.. you are not providing correct information at all!

Actually you can choose to either have it deducted or to claim it back. Obviously easier to simply have it taken off your premium but you dont have to.
Private Health Insurance Rebates - Medicare Australia

And some hospitals have horrendous waits. Same with bulk billing GPs. My MIL is still waiting for surgery after a year! If that's not long wait I don't know what is. But still not as bad as the UK.

[anj1976]

I am no aware what your MIL wants to get operated but from what I know and have heard frmo people who managed getting surgery dates in a month's time that see how urgent it is for you get operated upon, if it is urgent they do give you an early date, if it is not that urgent they keep delaying it but again, follow up is a must.
The GP i go to gives appointments the same day depending on how urgent the case is, my daughter has severe throat infection, he asked me how urgent it is and when i told him it is sereve he asked me to hop in teh car and see him, i called another place before this GP adn they suggested i go to someone else because they did not have time till the next day. some GPs dont even see new patients

[cross]

Originally Posted by lifeisgood

Will I be needing private medical insurance apart from Medicare?
Which are the better insurance companies are out there ?

Personally I have taken private health cover from Medibank and I am happy that I did.

With Medicare, you have access to public hospitals, outpatient services and rebate from GP/ specialist services.

With private health cover - you get access to private hospitals. They pay for your accommodation while the actual treatment costs are borne by both medicare and private insurer and you will have to bear the gap if any.

I would suggest you read what medicare has to offer http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...ster/index.jsp

You can check the plans offered by any private health insurer.

Assess your family medical needs and take a call.

All the best!

[naoto]

Originally Posted by _shel

And some hospitals have horrendous waits. Same with bulk billing GPs. My MIL is still waiting for surgery after a year! If that's not long wait I don't know what is. But still not as bad as the UK.

I'm not sure what operation your MIL is waiting for, but I know that even such a non "vital" surgeries as hernia are operated within a months time. More "critical" surgeries are attended even faster. Part of being in public healthcare is to understand that system needs to prioritize. Not to say that one months wait might be frusturating for you, this is still better than benchmarks in a range of countries including UK and Canada

[KimMii]

Originally Posted by naoto

You are wrong, you are not claiming the 30% tax rebate. The 30% is paid directly and deducted from the actual premium you pay.
The wait is not long at all, in hospitals either.. you are not providing correct information at all!

You seem to take exception to everything I say...I'm not WRONG at all!!!
The information I provide is both from knowledge gathered or personal experiences...
Yes you can either deduct it from the premium as you pay or claim it back in your Tax Return...either way it is a rebate provided as a 'tax deduction' no matter at which stage you claim it. There are very long waiting lists for public hospitals in Australia, depending on what the medical case is. "Urgent" doesn't always extend to things like heart surgery, cancers treatments etc. In fact, one reason for our coming to Europe was for medical reasons (which we have paid for ourselves, not depended upon our new country to provide for us)
After living and working in Australia all my life, and being a legal professional who dabbled in Politics, I have a fairly solid knowledge of the workings of Australia and it's systems! I think you should probably do some research and educate yourself a little further.