Help out if you can
I insure my house and my car as it makes sense . I have also been told from an early aged this is what you need to do .
Now some how I have got to this stage in my life , being almost 40 with a wife and 3 kids and have never discussed health/hospital/medical insurance. Do I need it and whats the rough cost. If it matters were on one wage with a mortgage ,and is it another bill that could be avoided. If you go to emergency ,you don't get charged.
cheers

For a start Tom, don't stress.

Whatever decision you make today isn't likely to have any effect on "near term" situations. That's the way they work.

If I were you, I'd go for it, but your financial circumstances aren't mine.

Be fully convinced in your own conscience of what is the best decision, and go with it, according to your own financial situation.

Nobody can answer this for you.

Best wishes for good health to you and yours.

OK my example

recently had a torn cartilage in hip. I am one of the "lucky" 10 -20% of people who have a bit of a thick femur neck so when you bend the hip totally it impacts the cartilage rim of the socket bit, and it just wears out in half the time. Of course you don't know that......nobody tells you this when u r born lol
Mostly affects 20-40 y/o's doing a lot of sport.
Could that be you bigtom?
You would not know if you have that type of impingement.

Op and hospital cost about $13K and I am yest to see a bill apart from a room excess of $100 and $60 pharmacy.

Public I'd wait years as it is not like a 70 y/o needing a replacement. I'd be waayyyy down the list so would not windsurf again.

Private? - hell yes!

Previously with broken ankle and dislocated shoulder I have said 'treat me like a AFL player, I want 100% fix and it's covered' and trust me you get the best guys and in straight away.


But costly yeah. $170 per fortnight for 2 adults 2 kids.

Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. But gotta balance that with the $$$$ and yeah it is hard.

^ plus one to the above.

In the event of health issues, which are common, you're not likely to think "Gee I wish I hadn't wasted this coin"

On the flipside, how would you feel if you "could have", but chose not to?

Again, if you can't afford it without undue hardship on a day-to-day basis, by all means go the public system.

In my opinion, we are probably one of the highest quality public health countries in the world, if not THE highest.

I take the Ned Flanders approach.

Insurance is a sin as its a form of gambling.

Which it is a gamble either way.

Look at Markie, he pays $170 a fortnight,
thats $340 a month,
which is $4080 a year.
Only $40 800 every 10 years.

It might pay off if you have something bad happen or when your old and your body is falling apart, but,
its a gamble you can only choose.

In the past 20 years I have had 2 big opps and a few broken bones etc that the public health system did free of charge, and quick, great service.
If I had paid insurance all that time I would have forked out $81 600 to be covered by "insurance"and probly still have been charged for a bit that wasnt covered.

Can't answer without making fun of me. Grow up.

BTW it is $170 for 4 people so your clever little math doesn't work. I have paid $10K for me only, and had more than that back in one injury out of three.
Duh.

Ummmmmm, was a serious answer.
How did you turn that into "haven a go at you"

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bigtom said..
If you go to emergency ,you don't get charged.
cheers

Emergency department at the hospital might not charge - but if you arrived in an ambo expect to be out of pocket a fair bit.

I've never had to pay for the butchers van - every cent was covered by either St Johns membership, or HIF.

Same as the fellas above - in the last few years I have had a series of admissions to hospital for surgeons to chop bits out and rearrange stuff.

Without my HIF cover, I wouldnt have needed to worry about the mortgage payments - we would have lost the house!

I'm 52, married, single income [that isnt too flash] , subsidising our 19 year old son [apprentice] and have our eldest son, daughter-in-law and 2 awesome grandsons camping in our house so they can save for thier own place.

Yeah - health insurance costs a lot, BUT!! at least get your family some Ambo cover!
I still cringe when our bill arrives every month.


You can possibly save a few dollars with Ambo membership - the bit below might still be valid

Its been a while since I was a direct member with St Johns Ambo. [Bindoon, W.A.]
HIF cover us now as part of our health insurance package

It used to be/might still be, that you can join St Johns Ambulance branches in country towns - and it was much cheaper than if joining in the city - but still covered you for Ambo transport Australia wide.
If you joined "in the city" the fees get dumped into general revenue and the country depots dont see much of it, join with a country branch and your annual subscription stays with the local branch.

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lotofwind said..
Ummmmmm, was a serious answer.
How did you turn that into "haven a go at you"

I didn't turn it..... as usual use of "Markie" again and talking about old and body falling apart.
Frothing to see something I wrote that u can reply to, in the same vein as your usual form.

I gather if you truly believe what you wrote you have no house or car insurance?


And agreed with SN - the ambo coverage is valuable.
Even when emergency surgery in public, I would have had to pay $800 for 2 x ambo trips in 2 days. HBF covered it

Also covered my kids' major dental that was a bolt outa the blue and I'd hate to not be able to have my kids get treated

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lotofwind said..
or when your old and your body is falling apart

OI!!!

I'm not old

I'm not even middle aged yet


stephen

The point I was making, that you missed , is that its a gamble.
I have had over $30 000 worth of opp's etc in the last 20 years and hasnt cost me a cent because we have a good public health system.

Sounds from the OP that bigtom knows it is a gamble. So no need for" Markie payed $40K in 10 yrs "

He wanted examples, I gave one. Loto can't give one of his contrary examples without dissing Mark's one. Albeit with incorrect math, unable to divide by 4.
Stalker.

yawn, I give up,,ok,, everythings about you as you want.
Sorry, I should know better to reply to you trolling.

Sorry bigtom, back on topic now please mark.

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sn said..

bigtom said..
If you go to emergency ,you don't get charged.
cheers

Emergency department at the hospital might not charge - but if you arrived in an ambo expect to be out of pocket a fair bit.

It must depend on where you are. I crashed my bike last year and got a helicopter ride to hospital. Never got billed. That's NSW.

On the other hand, when they asked me if I had insurance in the hospital, I explained to them that I am self insured, saving me the expense of advertising, extras and administration costs, so instead of having me attend the fractures clinic for a shattered collarbone, they sent me off to a private guy. He charged me about 3 times the medicare fee for a visit every fortnight for 3 months and I ended up with a naturally healed break. So I spent about $700 on that vs $2000/yr for insurance.

This is interesting, everyone in the US assumes that healthcare is not only free but better in places such as Australia and Western Europe. In fact I hear a lot of people talk about moving to these places specifically for the "free" healthcare.
About how much does insurance cost for one middle aged man?

Im 38 but got it before 30 as apparently that affects some crap, probably gives me 20c tax back a year. The single person gets ripped off, I pay $205 a month now top hospital & extras. When I had a wife & 2x kids on it was only $70 more.

I have it as the health system doesnt care if you can still contribute to society by being able to work so while some stuff will get addressed quickly via emergency others you will get put into a very long waiting list, if your not someone who can hobble around at work then it can affect ability to provide income. Maybe income protection insurance is cheaper in this instance but doesnt protect quality of life.

Regarding our healthcare sometimes it's good sometimes not, my son just had excellent treatment due to infection but when he had operation which was best time to investigate why it occurred despite my requests it just became a cut & shut. A friend of mine who works in healthcare travels overseas to get treatment for MS, so in some things private health is of no use when they just dont understand. I dont know about elsewhere but I see alot of ignorance in our healthcare which is not good when it hasent progressed much past capitalist witchdoctory at the clinical level.

Back to private health ive always disagreed with the whole extras & remedial stuff that is bundled into it, as inevitably it will drive the cost up. When you pay so much though you start looking at using these things to get some sort of value out of it.

I'm 32, pay around $250 a month. For me and the misses. Been in private for around 7 years.

I'm quite surprised I haven't destroyed a knee or shoulder from kiting. Just an attempted decapitation, but lets not think about that...

Apart from glasses, I haven't used my cover. Misses might her Chiro or acupuncture.



Lotofwinds, you didn't take into account the additional tax one has to pay if they do not have private cover.

I was looking to Obstetrics-related services and there is a world of difference between going public, which is more than fine, compared to going Private. (If you live in a major city)

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mkseven said..
Im 38 but got it before 30 as apparently that affects some crap, probably gives me 20c tax back a year. The single person gets ripped off, I pay $205 a month now top hospital & extras. When I had a wife & 2x kids on it was only $70 more.

Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading is an initiative designed by the Government to encourage people to take out private hospital cover earlier in life…and penalise those who fail to do so.

If you don’t take out cover by your 31st birthday, your monthly health insurance premiums will cost more if you eventually take out cover later on.

LHC loading starts at 2% of your premium, and increases by that amount each year. So, if you join at age 35, you’ll pay 10% more on the cost of your hospital cover than you would have if you’d joined five years earlier.

yeah I did understand it but it only affects if you choose to get cover later. That 2% accrual takes a while to outweigh the annual premiums paid though. For me the only benefit gained of the amount paid over the years is medicare rebate which in the end doesnt amount to much.

Something is really not right with that industry, it would be interesting to see the premiums paid vs claims compared to say car insurance industry which seems to be doing ok & how many pay $2000+ per year on that.

As a base consideration premiums are offset against potential of claim, do professional sports people pay higher premiums than normal folk?

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mkseven said..
yeah I did understand it but it only affects if you choose to get cover later. That 2% accrual takes a while to outweigh the annual premiums paid though. For me the only benefit gained of the amount paid over the years is medicare rebate which in the end doesnt amount to much.

Have you counted the higher medicare levy for non insured people? And rebate?

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Mark _australia said..
OK my example

Op and hospital cost about $13K and I am yest to see a bill apart from a room excess of $100 and $60 pharmacy.

But costly yeah. $170 per fortnight for 2 adults 2 kids.

But gotta balance that with the $$$$ and yeah it is hard.

You pay $13K every 3 years for private health insurance. $45K every 10 years.

Would you insure a $45K car for $4K every year? Assuming a 1:10 chance you're going to completely write it off/have it stolen/etc?
Really?

^^^ Oh don't get me wrong, I hate paying it. But if I didn't I would not be windsurfing anymore
Because a shoulder or hip cleanout for somebody young is a very low priority in the public system (and rightly so, oldies need replacements and stuff) it would take me years to get in for surgery. I put the hip off 2yrs for various reasons and that alone meant some bits deteriorated and could not be repaired. Imagine waiting 5 or so...

Plus when I busted an ankle, private insurance enabled me to see the best ankle surgeon and get an MRI in 3 days (when I was 750km from the machine too BTW). ..... and on Christmas Eve no less. The physio's advice was to get on a wobble board in a week and do some walking. Luckily I didn't cos the MRI showed tons of damage, I didn't walk for months.
Now if I was public I would have only had that physio, would wait so long for an MRI that I'd probably have done what the physio told me, and that ankle would have been buggered for life.

If I could have $20K in the bank, yeah I'd have no insurance. But I don't and won't.

The peace of mind is worth it IMHO

An interesting aspect of elective surgery waiting lists... was explained by a surgeon friend. Is they are not uniform across the country, there are specialists across the country in regional centres etc, why they are there varies.....not the best in their field? maybe but still qualified.

But in many cases they go there for lifestyle...the water, the surf, maybe a farm/vineyard etc or some times while they a specialist surgeon they get bored with doing the same ops every day....a specialist in a region centre will do a variety of ops besides their specialty.

So if you do get on a long waiting list....ask for alternatives....an air flight and a few days in a hotel maybe the only cost to you.

In Qld we pay a small levy on our electricity bills to pay for free ambulance for all. Very Socialist and a sweet, sweet deal.

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Shifu said..
In Qld we pay a small levy on our electricity bills to pay for free ambulance for all. Very Socialist and a sweet, sweet deal.

In NSW we pay insurance companies to... make a profit... and something else.

I pay about $75 a week for hospital cover. If I didn't have the private health insurance, I would be paying close to this in the additional medicare levy surcharge anyway for not having private health insurance. Makes the decision pretty simple.

This is not the increased premiums you pay if you join late, this is additional medicare levy tax you may have to pay every year at tax time if you don't have private health insurance.

Here in USA I pay $1,500 a month for a family of 4, plus an annual deductible of $2,700, so $20,700 a year before anything is covered. Earlier this year spent a few days in hospital - suddenly glad I have insurance - room alone was $10k per day. Haven't even seen the rest of the bills yet.

I'd take public system over what I pay, pretty sure most of the cost is insurance company salaries, CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends. Many doctors in the US now make less than a CPA (my wife is a doctor and I'm an accountant).

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philn said...
Here in USA I pay $1,500 a month for a family of 4, plus an annual deductible of $2,700, so $20,700 a year before anything is covered. Earlier this year spent a few days in hospital - suddenly glad I have insurance - room alone was $10k per day. Haven't even seen the rest of the bills yet.

I'd take public system over what I pay, pretty sure most of the cost is insurance company salaries, CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends. Many doctors in the US now make less than a CPA (my wife is a doctor and I'm an accountant).

This is a dose of reality for people that whinge about our system.
I think there is a good balance between private and public in aus personally. Paid my own private health since 25 and never regretted it. Has paid for itself and more after one particular bingle. Agree on value of peace of mind also.

I personally find private health class dividing
Same with private schooling
Everyone who gives to the system deserves quality health treatment
I know plenty good honest hard working low earners and I know rich knobheads
It's a shame

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Beaglebuddy said..
This is interesting, everyone in the US assumes that healthcare is not only free but better in places such as Australia and Western Europe. In fact I hear a lot of people talk about moving to these places specifically for the "free" healthcare.
About how much does insurance cost for one middle aged man?

Ain't that so.
Our country was hook, lined, and sinkered into thinking that, what's that saying? "You get the government you deserve".
The government takeover of our healthcare system, sold under the guise of "The Affordable Healthcare Act", now referred to as Obamacare, turned out to be anything but that.
Really high deductibles, higher insurance rates, and most people lost the ability to choose the doctor that they wanted to see.

I would love to have the problems that you guys have, it used to be that way in the states, but not anymore, consider yourselves lucky.