Tips for first-time players?

[skinnyminny]

Hello! :wave:

I'm a first-time poster and new to the whole baby thing - so please excuse my ignorance!

We are trying for our first baby and trying to figure out the public vs private hospital system. We may or may not have private hospital cover in time - just depends on how long it takes to fall pregnant!

I understand that with full private antenatal & birth care, you can choose your OB and hospital. Are there always out-of-pocket expenses with private care, even when you do have insurance?

If we end up going through the public system, can you choose which hospital you go to? Or is it based on which part of the city you live in (ie. north or south side)?

Also, are public antenatal care appointments with midwives or OB's? Is there consistency in who you see or is it entirely dependant on who is rostered on to the clinic each time?

Thanks!

[Babymaker]

Hi I will try and answer some of your questions...

I understand that with full private antenatal & birth care, you can choose your OB and hospital. Are there always out-of-pocket expenses with private care, even when you do have insurance?

Yes, Ob appointments are not covered by health insurance as they are an out-patient treatment. I managed to find an Ob that does not charge anymore then what my health insurance pays so it did not cost me anything to have DS in a private hospital (normal VB). He was also an anethatist (sp??) so if I had of wanted an epi it would of not cost me anethatist fees either. He also did shared care with the hospital midwives (free) so I got to cut down on ob appoinments too, I think I saw him about 6 times my whole pregnancy which cost me $240ish all up plus my 2 scans I had.

If we end up going through the public system, can you choose which hospital you go to? Or is it based on which part of the city you live in (ie. north or south side)?

No idea, I use private health insurance.

Also, are public antenatal care appointments with midwives or OB's?

Mainly Midwives or Registrars I think

Is there consistency in who you see or is it entirely dependant on who is rostered on to the clinic each time?

I think this depends on where you go, with a birthing centre you are more likely to see the same people especially if you go the same day each time.

[emalou]

Hi there, i would highly reccomend private health cover even if you decide to have bubs in the public system. I have a 11month old who i had privately and yes it did cost us about 1400 out of pocket which yes is a lot of money on top of paying private HC but my little girl was born with a heart condition. Although at this current satge it doesn't really matter as she was treated at the RCH in Melb which is public and private if we hadn't had privarew HC my little girl would never be accepted into any fund now that she has been born with a medical problem, so even if you decide to go public which you can even with private HC i would highly reeommend it to recieve the best care just in case! I don't mean to scare you but a lot of people do not realise this.

[skinnyminny]

Thanks very much for the replies. Decisions, decisions...

[Izy]

The posts here are very accurate... apart from one aside. In australia funds are not allowed to discriminate against people due to pre-existing conditions. It will make it near impossible for life insurance, but health has seperate legislation. Pre-exisiting conditions are subject to longer waiting periods than sudden and accute conditions, but will be covered.

[MJ410]

Also, are public antenatal care appointments with midwives or OB's? Is there consistency in who you see or is it entirely dependant on who is rostered on to the clinic each time?



I can only go off of what I know of the public system, which is that my hospital offered a single midwife service (discovered this AFTER I had my son though :rolleyes:). I had a few more appointments than average thanks to a breech bubba who had to be checked for whether he'd moved or not, and saw 2 midwives, each of whom were lovely, informed and communicated well and 2 ob's, one of whom delivered my c-section bub. The 2nd OB I saw because the 1st was busy delivering babies the day before my c-section.
I had a really good experience going through the public system as a public patient, personally.

[MamaLlama]

Ditto this. Back in 1976 when I was born funds WERE allowed to refuse to cover a sick baby even though the mother was a member at the birth. But Medibank Private (being the Govt fund) was not. Since then its changed and none of the funds are allowed to exclude a baby of a member on that basis.

As a result back then my Mum who was an MBF member was able to move both of us to Medibank and we were covered without a waiting period. But thankfully even that headache should no longer happen.

Not that there won't be a fund out there somewhere that will try it on one day I'm sure.