Which private health fund????

[banga]

hi guys,

we are currently with HCF and i had our daughter privately on the gold coast whilst i was covered. i found that my fund covered hardly anything, and we ended up paying thousands of dollars extra (we were at pindara hospital for any gold coasters out there).

i was just wondering if anyone can recommend a better fund? we are currently paying $100 a month (not really that much i know) to cover the 3 of us.

i really liked pindara hospital (they don't accept public patients) and would like to have our next child there. but having private health didn't seem to cover ANY of the costs!!! we ended up paying thousands for the ob and hospital stay, plus the anesthetist, plus the fee for having our ob do the delivery etc.

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

thanx

amy

[OscarTheGrouch]

We were paying $100 a fortnight for our hospital and extras cover with MBF. My hospital accomodation was fully paid for, with no excess. The disappointment comes when you put in your claims for Paediatritian, Anaesthetist ...etc..... I got very little back and was out of pocket quite a bit. I've heard that Medibank Private and NRMA are the best for pregnancy related care.

[zenifa]

I am with medibank private (hospital and extras) and pay now as a family $200/month (I was only paying a single fee for the couple of years prior to having DD, as my DH is very healthy and didn't need health insurance). I only paid a $200 excess when I went into hospital to have my DD. My ob fees, including management fee and u/s were not claimable through them only medicare. My health fund did cover my hospital costs, anaesthest, paediatrician etc. I was very pleased with my health fund, I even used my package bonus so I got my excess back!! I know there is a website (sorry can't think of the address) where you plug in your needs and it tells you which fund is best for you. Good luck

[anna&oli]

Hi

We're with HCF as well and i can't fault them. I had Oliver at Calvary Hospital in canberra and was extremely happy with them. I opted for an executive suite - which isn't covered fully by any funds. The suite had 2 lounges, a kitchen a queen bed, 2 bathrooms and was bigger than most motel rooms. it ended up costing me $20 a night - which was fabulous because DH stayed the whole time and when we had visitors we had room to entertain them without them sitting on my Bed!!!!!!!

Anyway bck to the topic- I did have to pay for the anaethatist, but that was it. Medicare gave me 70% back of this fee and i think HCF gave me an extra $70 not much though!!!!

Other than that - everything else was covered!!!!!! Not sure why you have paid so much.

We Just have the top range hospital package- No extra's

Anna

[MilkOnTap]

Oh - the great private health care debate! lol

I am with HCF and I am also looking at switching plans. Originally I was going to switch to NIB (Gold). Their plans are pretty good and have great rebates.

I realised however that Defence Health are much better! Are you a defence spouse?

[Briswegian]

Health insurance is such a rort. You end up paying no matter what. It does depend on your fund and the place you go. For instance, when I went to the dentist, I went to one that is 'approved' by my fund and then I have no out of pocket expenses.
I had insurance for my first child which we cancelled part way through as we didn't have the money to pay for the insurance, and the obst. , and the extra obst fees that you pay to cover their insurance, and the hospital excess etc etc. We figured that it was going to cost us a couple of grand to have the baby and that didn't include the monthly fees :thumbsdown:
There's a website called iselect that helps find a fund for you.

[leenaomi]

I know there is a website (sorry can't think of the address) where you plug in your needs and it tells you which fund is best for you. Good luck

I think the website you're talking about is www.iselect.com.au. I used it recently when, after 10 years, I decided to give MBF the flick because they are now paying less for general dental which is about the only thing I use it for apart from obstetrics (which I have used once and will only use once more). I'm now with Manchester Unity and I'm paying $174.00 per fortnight, instead of $176.00 per fortnight with MBF and have A LOT more inclusions.

It's worthwile either looking at the website or giving I-Select a call.

[Tam-I-Am]

Be aware that iselect only have a limited number of policies listed, though - they don't have details on all the funds available.

[banga]

thankyou all so much for your help!

i know that you either pay high premiums with no out-of-pocket expenses, or low premiums with lots of out-of-pocket expenses soooooooooo......it probably works out about the same amount doesn't it!!!

i'm looking into a few other funds. i'll probably just cancel my current one, and then sign up again when we ttc. i'm such a tight a**!!!!!!

thanx everyone

love amy

[Briannabear]

We're with NRMA. We chose it because of the good maternity cover.
They also have a 'maternity bonus' which they pay to help cover costs of baby products such as nappies, clothes, food, home cleaning etc, and toiletries.
How much you get depends on how long you stay in hospital. EG. NORMAL DELIVERY...5 nights - $150, 4 nights - $250, 3 nights - $350. C/S DELIVERY...7 nights - $150, 6 nights - $250, 5 nights - $350.
We werent covered for our first baby so Im interested to see how we go with them this time.

[Briannabear]

i'm looking into a few other funds. i'll probably just cancel my current one, and then sign up again when we ttc. i'm such a tight a**!!!!!!

Id definately hold onto a fund until you TTC. If you cancel it now you'll have to go through their 12 month waiting period before you can claim. Which means that unless it takes you a long time to conceive you wont be covered.
If you hang onto your fund you can usually just switch funds and forfeit the normal waiting periods.

[Ivijani]

Hi

I am moving to Australia from UK next year and am wondering about what will be covered if we wait to ttc for no.2 when we get there. The 12 month waiting period. Would i be covered for obstetrician costs and scans etc if i conceieved after 3/4 months? y'know all the pg costs let alone the birthing costs.

how does it work?

jani

[littlepickle]

Hi,

You dont have to be in a private health fund for 12 months before getting pegnant. You just need to have been with the health fund for 12 months on your EDD. So even if bubs was preemie, you would still be covered

[Ivijani]

hiya

does that include the pregnancy costs too then? like the scans and obs appts and stuff.

I am thinking cos I had c-section last time and was induced due to glucose intolerance, so would expect a few check ups.


jani :confused:

[SLH]

I'm with HCF and pay $170 per month and that covers to obstetrics/private stay etc. As we are TTC soon Ive called them numerous times and they have confirmed that we have the top cover. Before we got married our cover was $120 per montn but I've added obstetrics to it, so I think it's really important to be aware of what you are covered for and make no assumptions. My friends made the mistake of thinking they were covered fro obstetrics and ended up paying close to $7k! :eek:

Having said that, if it wasn't for the medicare levy, I probably would drop my cover down and go public for any births...