Private Cover for Baby?

[EmyB]

Hi guys,

I'm going private for the birth of my first bub but I have realised that my newborn baby will technically not be covered privately after he/she is separate from me. :o

I spoke to the health fund who said that I'd have to upgrade to a family cover two months prior to birth to include baby. That's double the premium I'm paying now. Fair enough but I was just wondering, do we NEED private cover for a newborn baby? If he/she (god forbid) needs ICN or something what difference will private health cover make? Will it help us get in touch with a private paediatrician on discharge or something?

What is everyone's experiences/thoughts with this? Thanks heaps for the advice!

x Em

[missie_mack]

Our fees didn't go up from when it was just DH and I to adding DS :confused: I would have thought you should already be paying family rates anyhow :confused:

I just sent Dh home to do it the night DS was born and we had new cards issued with his name added before I even left the hospital

[EmyB]

Hi Missie_Mack,

No we're not on family cover as it worked out much cheaper for us to be on separate individual covers at different health funds. If we end up changing ME to family cover so that bubby would be covered then my hubby can switch to my policy also. I'm just wondering if private cover makes any difference to a newborn? :detective:

x Em

P.S. I think the whole "two months before birth" thing is so the baby wouldn't have waiting periods?? Who knows. :confused:

[zenifa]

When I had DD1, I had single private health cover (DH is insanely healthy so has never needed it), and DD1 was covered for either the first 6 or 8 weeks (from her birth) - after that we upgraded to family, as it cost to the same to add either DH or DD1, so now we're all covered and when DD2 came along she was covered immediately and it cost us no extra. Plus with our health fund, there is no excess for claims for children (but in 3.5yrs we have never claimed for them, only 1 dental check up for DD1 at 2yrs).

Aside from being in special care nursery as a prem, or having any health issues straight after birth, most babies won't be claiming but its a peace of mind decision.

Having said that, if its double what you currently pay, I would also be reluctant to pay extra for 2 months - its hard to know if you'll need it.

Good luck deciding what is right for you.

[GrowingMyFamily]

The problem is you don't know if you'll need the cover for the special care nursery until after the birth. My DS didn't go into special care until the day we were due to go home (we have quite olive coloured skin as a family and they didn't test him for jaundice until that day and he had it quite badly) but when he did we were very glad it was all covered as we were in a private hospital and he had to stay there for 3 days.

If you add DH to your policy and cancel his other one at the same time as adding the baby does it work out better for you? Then you would just be paying the one lot of family cover rather than family for you and bub and single for your DH. Probably still more expensive than your two single covers by the sounds of it but better than the alternatives...

[Cat13]

If you add DH to your policy and cancel his other one at the same time as adding the baby does it work out better for you? Then you would just be paying the one lot of family cover rather than family for you and bub and single for your DH. Probably still more expensive than your two single covers by the sounds of it but better than the alternatives...

I think this sounds like a good idea. Also, if you upgrade to a family policy that covers your DH too, find out if you still have to add the baby 2 months prior to the birth. I know with our policy we had until 6 weeks after the birth to notify them.

As for whether you really NEED private health insurance for baby, who knows but I was certainly glad that we did.

It didn't make a difference in terms of private paediatricians but it did make a big difference for us when at 7 months our DS had kidney surgery (for something that an insurance company might consider to be a pre-existing condition had we not added him to the policy within the required time). We had this done in a private hospital as soon as it was recommended rather having to go on a waiting list to have the procedure done at a public hospital who knows when. And on our policy there is no excess payable for children so we were not out of pocket at all which was great.

[kla]

The private hospital where I had my DS charges $1200 a day if your baby has to go into the special care nursery. (Covered by PH if you have the correct cover- ie. family)

Of course you always hope that they never will but this is definately an expense that we would have had trouble paying had the situation occured that he had to go in and we weren't insured.

Maybe check with your hospital and see what their charges are. You could always cancel your family cover down the track if you decide you don't need it etc.

[OneCheekyMonkey]

I had until one month after the birth to upgrade to family cover. I had top hospital/essentials single before that. We decided to wait until last week to upgrade and add DP.

My bub was full term and a good size but had problems regulating his blood sugar levels for the first few days. He ended up in SCN for 6 (very long) hours the first night. I shudder to think how much it would cost if we did not upgrade.

[jojo72]

Hi,
We had a similar situation to you. We had two separate policies as it was cheaper for DP to have his own. My health fund didn't need the baby added before he was born. Just had to add him in the next couple of weeks. He would have been covered had he needed special care.

Before I knew this I figured that since the hospital we were in is in the same building as the Royal Women's I could send him there as a public patient if money really required it. But then he would not necessarily have the benefit of consultant care. He may be being care for by whatever intern was on at the time. So this is something to consider.

And like a PP said if there is something wrong down the track then your fund could consider it pre-existing and you end up on a long public waiting list with goodness knows who operating on your bub.

Once you change to a family policy you are going to be paying double no matter whose policy you add bub to as well. We ended up getting rid of DP's policy and now have just one. And we will still pay the same with another baby on the policy. It doesn't go up with extra children. Hope this helps.