Private health insurance shouldn’t exist. Australia could end negative gearing for residential property, dividend franking credits, the capital gains tax discount and remove all exemptions for the Medicare Levy Surcharge, as well as introduce an inheritance tax for large estates. All that extra cash could pay for things like full universal healthcare for all Australians.
I’m also a pragmatist, so here we go wasting an entire day looking at private health insurance again because my household’s medical situation has drastically changed. The facts from my previous look at PHI 18 months ago still remain unfortunately. This is a pain in the arse and it’s no wonder most people don’t bother shopping around for health insurance! Only pedantic, bored nerds like me can find the energy to put this much effort in.
What I need is couples insurance for my wife and I, both bronze level hospital and the following extras:
- Optical - prescription frames & lenses each, per year
- Dental - 2x cleans (114, $187ea), 2x oral exam (012, $57ea), 1x x-ray (022, $45), 1x fluoride treatment (121, $40) each, per year
- Psychology - monthly sessions ($230/m) just one of us
- Non-PBS medicines - tirzepatide ($363/m) for just one of us
Anything else in the extras like vaccinations, screening tests (skin mapping, bowel cancer, etc) or paying for ambulance cover is a nice bonus too.
PrivateHealth.gov.au has a list of private health insurers - there actually aren’t that many once you take out the restricted funds (i.e: cops, nurses, doctors, etc) and funds that don’t let you sign up online.
I ignored Australian Unity, Frank, RT Health & Medibank from my list as if you want to find out how much they’ll pay out for fixed benefits (i.e: what you get back after a dentist visit) the data isn’t public and you need to call. Fuck that. HIF’s website was busted. Mildura Health Fund didn’t have any Bronze hospital cover (??) and HBF’s See-u brand doesn’t cover non-PBS medicines at any level.
The spreadsheet below is a list of all the insurers that met my criteria.
If we didn’t have PHI, we’d be paying $2,010 in extra tax (Medicare Levy Surcharge, which is on top of the Medicare Levy). The best insurance for our needs is Latrobe’s Bronze hospital cover and Core Complete extras.
It costs $2,912 a year all up including a $300 promo discount and we get $882 of “value” out of the extras more than the extras plan itself costs, so we are paying $681.11 ($340.56 each) for hospital coverage should we need an operation.
Like I said earlier, I’d rather give this $2912 to the government and in return I get to have an elective operation within weeks of needing it, be able to go to the dentist for cheap and have my medicines covered by the PBS - but that isn’t going to happen any time soon, even if thousands of us gave $2,912 to the ATO instead of a private health insurer, so I may as well do the pragmatic thing here.