Yes, we have private health insurance. I know it is expensive but you never know what may happen. My daughter had to have corrective jaw surgery a couple of months ago – hospital costs was all covered. All I had to pay was a $500 gap to the surgeon (who being top of his field, I was surprised only charged $500 over the standard fee). We also use our private health insurance for physiotherapy, podiatrist, optometrist, orthodontist, dentists etc. If you add it all up, it really does pay to have private health insurance.

Yes we do and are on a very low income, but i wouldnt have it any other way. I would hate to see my kids or partner suffer when they dont have to. But when my son needed his tonsils and adnoids out a couple of years ago he waited two weeks to get booked in through our choosen specilist not months& months or years(depending on how serious it was) which is what it would of taken in our local area. He waked out of the hosital a healthy boy hours after his operation.. I would hate to have seen him suffer longer than he had to.. Thats the thing about private health insurance, when you dont need it its a pain it the hip pocket, but when you do you get access almost straight away well a lot sooner than you would of on the public waiting list.

We do, but it would cost us more in tax not to have it.

It is true everything is going up. We only rejoined over a year ago and the quote given is of course will never be the same again , What I have been told is the insurance goes up because there is too many claims ( hence they have to reclaim money back ) and then the benefits are lower because the doctors charges more. Hub said either your in it or not , so just check if its really needed and if yes make some comparisons on their websites and see if you can something suitable but affordable. I was thinking of going for hospital cover only , but we need it for the extras more so a catch 22 !

yeah it sure is but then again, everything is getting more expensive

Yes, I’ve got private insurance and it’s getting more and more expensive. But I wouldn’t feel safe without it, so we keep paying.
Time ago I read that they are thinking of taking away the “Specialist” option from Private Insurances. You get it just for “Hospital Cover” thus and not for “Extras”. The price of the insurance would go down this way. Just wondering if then Medicare would help with the “Extras” payments.

Yes we have it and wouldn’t be without it. Unfortunately it doesn’t go up almost yearly. But it’s worth the peace of mind for no waiting lists

For as long as I can remember health insurance always increases in price each year. As expensive as it can be I think it is essential if you need treatment and don’t want to go on a waiting list or if your family uses the optical, dental and other extras. Also if you don’t have it there are tax implications.

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 31 Jan 2016 , 6:29 am

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  I agree with your comments and excellent points. We have health cover too for those reasons. I do expect increases as the cost of living, including fees does go up, however, health cover has gone up by 6 percent every year for the past 5 years. The government and the Minister for Health want answers to this question too before they give the thumbs up to anymore increases. Consumers have a right to know why the premiums are increasing and some justification would be most welcome.

It is very expensive and it just gets more and more expensive but for me it is essential so we just have to deal with it unfortunately. But of course it would be great if it were a little bit more affordable.

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 30 Jan 2016 , 9:23 pm

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  I would like to see the justification for the increases to private health cover.

I think we have to expect regular small incremental increases.