Well it comes a time in everyones life when their parents no longer pay for everything. :(

Anyway, I need to get my own Healthcare, Looking over some of the Policies/Packages now and they all seem pretty generic with a few dollars here or there.

Who are you with, are they good, easy to claim stuff like Dental or a hassle etc.
Any general info would be much appreciated.

Anyone had any real Bad experience's with their provider?

iSelect

Just be very aware of what you actually need.

A single male, with no kids under the age of 30 who earns under 50 grand a year. Really need to look long and hard to see if its worth it. At most for that situation an extras only package is enough (to cover dental and physio from sporting accidents)

i actually didnt find iselect very helpful

we ended up just signing up recently (im 33) with HCF and they seem pretty good

chose them mainly coz wifeys work does a pretty good deal with them

they pay all excess (for her at least, not sure about me) and we get pretty good coverage for $33 bux a week for family care

i believe i was right to not sign up sooner, coz i just didnt need it

have only started having issues with my body in the last year or so, and i need it now, so i think ive signed up at just the right time (dont mind the extra premium penalty for signing up late)

iselect is not much chop as most of the bigger guys didn't jump on board.

I just switched form HCF to Medibank private because the family cover is better and I can pick and choose my options. We ditched dental for people over 18 and increased our physio coverage. Few other changes here and there. Think it costs me about $270 a month before rebate.

we ended up just signing up recently (im 33) with HCF and they seem pretty good

ouch! that means you didn't get the age cutoff!

we ended up just signing up recently (im 33) with HCF and they seem pretty good



ouch! that means you didn't get the age cutoff!

read the other bit of my post where i said i woudlnt have used it until just recently, so it would have been a waste

being a male, i dont go to the doctor or any health care, unless s*** is really really broken (or i need a med certificate for a day off)

We used iselect and got what we consider a good deal and really good coverage.

MBF here.

No real reason for most males to get it unless you are:
earning > $50k per year
about to turn 31

If you are single, I wouldn't worry about it until you meet one of those 2 criteria.

23 (24 in April, which is when i'm not on Family policy) Single...
Hope to be on just over the 50 (If My pay rise comes through) beginning of next year.

But I go 4wd-ing with Jim and Stuff like this happens;
http://s.grattan.googlepages.com/Jimny.jpg

So Health Care is suggested :p

save the money and invest in a roll cage

The Jeep actually has a pretty good Roll Cage.

So do Jimny apparently, Front Cabin hardly moved.

i mean one of those external cages

where you just dust yourself off, whinch the car onto its wheels again and she'll be right

having worked for an insurance company the best advice i can give is keep in mind what you need and avoid everything you dont, at the end of the day everyone is out to make a quick buck of you and they will sell you all kinds of useless s***.

Top thread, I'm in the same boat at the moment - especially with the prospect of having kids in 2+ years, just enough time to get through the waiting period.

I haven't picked yet but I like MBF or NIB .. the later seems a good choice for those that 'need' healthcare (taxable income over $50k, need to get through waiting periods, etc).

yer, thats it, we're about to start having kids also, so was another reason we signed up

just wasnt worth the money for me before now

I don't mind splashing out $400 a year or whatever knowing that it could prevent me needing to spend $12k when I don't have it. It's budgeted for, and is just treated as money I don't see, much like superannuation or tax.

Especially with the mountain biking I do, I just know that inevitably I'm going plant myself into a tree. Or down an embankment.

I just know that inevitably I'm going plant myself into a tree

see 60 minutes on sunday nite just past?

i would never watch that garbage but the footage of the mountain biker going 70 clicks an hour into a tree and stopping dead, was too good to miss

If its a real, life threatening emergency. You want to be in public and that's more then likely where the Ambo will take you (south of Nambour) anyway. Heck for any non elective surgery I'd be aiming for public. You may end up in a ward with a few others, but at least you might have someone interesting to chat to (still the best is a private room in a public hospital :P )

So for most young single males (eg. under 31) unless you are doing something that may result in elective surgery, have kids or are planning on it or are earning over 50grand. All you'll probably want is extras coverage for the dental and the physio (to help recover from accidents sporting or otherwise).


If I was you I'd be saving your cash for all the broken bits on your car (or an insurance policy that covers you off marked roads)

i'm over 31 & still feel no great need for private health cover. i rarely get sick, my body tends to heal itself if i sleep long enough, as obes says ambos take you to public hospitals (i am an ambo subscriber - direct from my pay) & i just pay outta my pocket for dental & i am still coming out waaaay ahead than if i had private cover.

recently with a few crowns (plus some other dental work) pending, the dentist advised me to get some private cover to help pay for it. but after checking several policies i discovered i would be far better off just paying out of my own pocket for the work as the private health cover premiums added up to more money.

yer, true story

petal had an accident in melbourne and we had to go through the public system

they did totally awesome work, we just spent 5 days in the hospital rather than 1

of all the extreme views obes holds, this would be one of the better ones.

Demon .. ambo cover is part of your power bill. It should not becoming out of your pay anymore.

unless he isnt in qld

yer, interesting follow up to petals accident, coz it happened in melbourne

she got a bill for just less than 800 bux (for a 5 minute ride)

we just sent it to qld ambos and they took care of it

I was with Medibank for about 5 years but had a look at Iselect and found a much better private health fund that provided me with alot more benifits.

Agree with Obes. I have private health insurance under my parent's plan, me being 20. Last week I had a collapsed lung and was sent to public hospital. Even though I have private health insurance I was given a bed. Last Friday I got out after a four day stay without having paid a cent. The point of my story, isn't to illustrate how I ripped the system but to provide another example of Obes' thoughts about private insurance when young. Besides, tax last year would've paid for my stay. I just hope after writing this that they don't send me a bill in the mail...

last edited by Triamks at 19:06:46 21/Mar/07

collapsed young?

oh yer. you are right obes. i knew it was automagically deducted from somewhere :) ambulance subbing is one thing i have never scimped on... back when ambo cover wasn't in your power bill i was still a regular subscriber & had to have an ambulance ride from mt.glorious with a broken leg to the royal bris hospital. they sent me a bill for $1400!!! but luckily it was due to an error on thier behalf as i was a subbie. still... an eye opener to see how much it would have cost!
i did slurp down a whole bottle of nitrous i spose ;) got to the hospital & the ambo says 'ok mate... gonna roll your stretcher out & put its legs down... take a deep breath of the nitrous!' ... & i'm like 'but its empty :('

i also have no problems with using public hospitals over private... either way i try & get out & go home as soon as i can!

I think the public hospitals are crap compared with private ones. so are the conditions.

Our private insurance very nearly pays for itself, considering without it we'd have to pay the extra 1% Medicare surcharge. Come to think of it, once you take out the occasional payments for dental, optometry, and whatever else, it probably totally pays for itself.

last edited by orbitor at 16:29:18 21/Mar/07

I think the public hospitals are crap compared with private ones. so are the conditions.

i disagree

royal melbourne was excellent and did excellent work

rooms were quite pleasant as well (petal had her own room for a day and then shared with 1 guy, who she enjoyed talking to anyway)

it was just they were so damn busy it took ages for anything to be done

well i'm just going on what my wife says, being a doctor and all :)

Mr Hardware :

from here

Q. Are Queenslanders travelling around Australia on holidays for an extended length of time still covered?

A. A person must be able to demonstrate that their principal place of residence is still in Queensland. If a person no longer has a principal place of residence in Queensland or takes up residence in another State or Territory then they cease to be a Queensland resident and will not be covered.

Orbitor ... if you are truly sick (intensive care sick) you want to be in public. If its elective (and covered by insurance) you want to be in private room in a public hospital (ime/imo). Some private hospitals have colourful reputations. That's just based on the experiences I had with my grandfather, and the from what my 2 siblings and g/f have said and they work in that industry.

My family and I have always been with Medibank Private and have no complaints.
I can get a new pair of glasses and sunglasses every year, covers decent dental, chiro, physio and alternative therapies like acupuncture etc.
Also there are decent excess options for hospital stays.
I had day surgery last year which cost me nothing, and from pre and post specialist visits I was out of pocket less than $100.00.
I was looking at changing recently and it just want worth it. If you are going to use the services offered to you then its worth paying that little bit more for better coverage.
Alot of the cheaper ones like NIB have much lower limits on annual coverage for standard things like optical and dental. At the moment I can get a new pair of glasses every calander year and unless I want to be extravagant with designer frames, Im usually not out of pocket at all. Especially when you use a company thats on Medibanks 'prefered providers' list, for further discount.
Also as someone else already mentioned, you have alot more flexibility with your extras coverage.

Woo just the thread I needed.

I'm 31 and have MS, wondering whether to launch into private health insurance. As I slowly become more f***ed up is there some reason I will need it, is there some sort of level of care I won't get if I'm a public patient? There's no elective fix-MS surgery I can get or anything like that, but the MS Society guy I met advised I get some private care?

There's jack s*** they can do if I have an attack other than stand around and go 'dude that sucks have some drugs'. My last two attacks were in a public hospital and I didn't feel like I was getting the shaft.

There is one neurologist in all of North Queensland so having a choice of doctors is kind of irrelevant.

QGL is possibly the worst place on the Earth to ask for this advice from, but eh you guys are good for a laugh if nothing else :p

Should also mention that with Medibank, they have an aditional fund of money you can use, kinda works like fly-bys I guess. The more you use it, this aditional fund increases in value up to $500.00 a year, which can be used when you claim. We reached this every year, but that was a family of 4 so I dont know how it goes with singles/couples who arent using it that often.

collapsed young?

I've edited now. No I don't have kids and it was my lung that collapsed.

Demon you really should consider private. my missus didn't have private health care and we found out a few months ago that she has a tumor. if she had private they would have done the surgery already instead of having to deal with the public system. it is f***ing terible, we have been sent back and foward for the last 4 months, we are finally getting somewhere after we spoke to the premier and threatend taking it to the news and s***.

even though you are healthy if something like that happened you would be screwed. i dought you could cover a 250k operation and i don't think you would like to be waiting around for a year.

yeah that's the issue with public. if something's immediately life threatening public is fine, they'll fix you up no worries. If, however, it is not going to cause death imminently, you have to wait, and wait, and wait.

i have considered private health cover... it just doesn't seem particularly viable to me. in many posts on this forum in the past i have given my outlandish views on insurance of all types & why i feel that the risk vs probability is simply not worth the money. i'll take the risk 9 times outta 10 ;)
i can definitely see some very real benefits for young families & people with deteriorating health... but for a reasonably health single person that rarely goes to the doctor, i'd prefer to pay for medical expenses out of my own pocket as required.

i guess i could cover a 250k operation if i sold my house... but what the hell kinda operation costs 250k & isn't life threatening? :p
i know most people seem to prefer to be insured against the possibility of financially crippling accidents but i prefer to just be optimistic! although, no doubt, as i get older i will get some sorta cover :p

If demon needs elective surgery he just crashes a motorbike into something. oO

Thanks for that obes. I was meaning that if he doesn't currently live in qld then he won't have the ambo subscription in his power bill.

he ? ... Scooter or Demon ? AFAIK they both live in the SE Corner (atm) .. also the q in qgl means Queensland. Any non Queenslanders are in fact aliens and deserve to be f***ed around with misinformation.

oh... right. sorry, forgot about that one.