where do i start?

[supa_star323]

I have been thinking about gtting private health insurance for a while. DS has some health problems, and I just don't know where to start looking. Any advice?

[Izy]

Perhaps start on the phone. Give yourself a little list and start caling the major funds. You will probably find that you learn aboout something new everytime you call a fund. I'll give you a basic outline of the things we normally talk about when explaining our covers to prospect clients.

Do you want to have a choice of hospital and Dr's? If yes you need private HOSPITAL cover... dental and glasses and physio etc are called ancillary services and are seperate.

Hospital cover will pay towards INPATIENT treatment once waiting periods are served. Be aware that you will be waiting 12 months for pre-existing conditions.

Your hospital cover can change prices depending on what level of cover you want. You can have cover for all services in hospital, or you can start to remove services like joints, renal, plastic surgery etc. Remember that anything you have excluded you will not be covered for even in accidents (normally), so if you remove plastic surgery you will not be able to have things like reconstructive surery after a car accident or burns. Do not take any exclusion or restricted benefit (like an exclusion but sneakier) lightly. Make sure you are 100% comfortable with removing that service.

Price can also be adjusted with an excess or copayment. This works by identifying an amount of money you pay upfront on admission or as an overnight charge. It's a good idea to have a figure in mind before calling as to what excess you could afford ($250 excess might be a good starting point). If you are high income eaners looking for exemtion from the 1% aditional medicare levy surcharg,make sure you choose an excess of $500 or less.

Excess will work differently with each fund, as will dr's Gap. You will find that most funds have a no-gap fcility, but dr's do have the right to bill what they want, and so most funds won't garentee no out of pockets with all dr's. Any that does will most likely have scarey price increases each april to reflect the claims they have to pay.

If either of you are over 31 than you will probably also have to pay an age loading of 2% for each year that you have delayed jining past your 31st birthday. But the funds will take that into consideration. They will also include a 30% rebate as a reduction in premiums for you (normally the easiest way to claim it)

Thats pretty much the crux of hosp cover... although I've probably confused you. The extras are usually a bit easer to work out. Do you want dental cover? Do you want optical? Do you want physio, natural therapies etc. Make sure you check what they pay per service as well... do they pay set benefits or do they pay percentages. Do they have approved providers in your area.

You'll stumble into a pattern after speaking to a few funds.

oh- I just realised you are really close to our office... if you want to PM me your contact details I can have someone from the Lismore office give you a ring to explain things.