Family Health Insurance Cover
Family health insurance cover is important as you want your family to be safe and secure at all times. But unfortunately, everybody needs healthcare at one time or another. Let’s explore what family private health cover can do for you.
Family Health Insurance Cover – Hospital
Family health insurance cover helps greatly if a member of your family is injured or falls ill. When you’re treated in a private hospital, most of your expenses will be covered.
Most health insurance providers offer a range of cover, from the basic through to top level cover. Your benefits will vary depending on the level of cover you get. If you want your choice of doctor or surgeon, you’ll usually need at least medium-level hospital cover.
Many insurers won’t charge an excess if one of your children is admitted to hospital. Nevertheless you should check the product disclosure statement if this is an important factor for you.
Family Health Insurance Cover – Extras
Many medical treatments not performed in hospital are commonly called ‘extras’. These ‘extras’ are more likely to be ongoing costs for your family.
Again, there’s different levels of extras cover. The list of treatments below is not exhaustive, and your level of cover will determine if each one is included in your policy.
- Optical
- Dental
- Physiotherapy
- Chiropractic
- Naturopathy
- Acupuncture
- Remedial Massage
- Medical appliances (hearing aids etc)
- Pharmaceuticals (if not covered under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme)
Each type of treatment will have different limits. That is many will have an annual limit per person while others may have a combined limit to be shared amongst the family. Billy Explores recommends you read the product disclosure statement carefully before buying!
What is an Excess Payment?
Excess is an amount you’ll pay if you need to make a claim on your family health insurance hospital cover. For example, you’ll only pay your excess amount if you’re admitted to hospital and have to stay 7 nights while your insurer covers the rest of the costs. Some insurers also don’t charge an excess for child admissions to hospital.
The excess you choose affects your monthly premium. Choose a high excess if you want lower monthly premiums. If you think you’ll be claiming frequently, perhaps choosing a low or zero excess is a good idea – but you’ll pay for it in the monthly premium.
Why Should I Consider Family Health Insurance Cover?
Peace of mind for your family is the most important reason for considering family health insurance cover. Knowing you can get the best medical treatment when you need it is important. Most people would say the most important thing to them is family, and most certainly their family’s health is at the top of the list.
Skip the Public Waiting Lists
Hospital visits aren’t always of an emergency nature. Many types of surgery can wait, however if you’re in pain or discomfort, why wait? In the public system, you’re at the mercy of the waiting lists and for some types of surgery you could wait years. You can skip those waiting lists and attend a private hospital if you have private family health insurance cover.
Choice of Doctors
Private family health insurance cover allows you and your family to choose your doctors and surgeons contrary people using the public system aren’t afforded this luxury. We’re lucky in Australia that our medical standards are extremely high, but it gives people comfort and peace of mind to have a say in who treats them.
Note that not all levels of hospital cover give you the option to choose your medical professionals to do so you may need higher than a basic package.
Private Health Insurance Rebates
If you’ve got private health insurance, the Australian Government offers a rebate according to your level of income and age. You can either receive the rebate in the form of lower monthly premiums, or you can claim a rebate at tax time. This is a great way to save!
Tax Advantages
You’re required to pay a Medicare Levy Surcharge if your household income is over $180,000 ($90,000 for singles). This is done through your tax return. However, if you’ve had private hospital cover for the whole financial year, you won’t have to pay the surcharge.
Pay Less and Avoid Lifetime Health Cover Loading
Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading is the Government’s way of encouraging people to take out private health cover before age 30. Basically, if your 31st birthday arrives and you don’t have hospital cover, any future hospital cover you purchase will cost more. The rate increases 2% every year after age 30. You won’t pay the extra amount if you get cover before 30!
Thinking of Starting A Family?
Even if you don’t yet have children, you’ll no doubt be thinking about family health insurance cover. The best option is to maintain a singles cover until your baby is nearly born. Make sure your policy includes things like obstetrics. Throughout the whole process of pregnancy and giving birth, there will be some out of pocket expenses, so make sure you’re covered for everything you can be.
Once your baby is nearly due, that’s a great time to switch to family health insurance cover. This way, the moment your child comes into the world, they’re covered!
Can I Switch Family Health Insurance Cover Providers?
You certainly can, and there’s no penalty for doing so. It’s tough raising a family these days. The expenses sometimes keep piling up. That’s why we recommend you compare health insurance regularly to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
How Do I Find the Best Family Health Insurance Cover from our Panel of Insurers?
Billy Explores can help you out there because he has a love for helping every day Aussie families save money. You deserve the great deals, and Billy does the hard work to find them for you. So, for great family health insurance cover, let Billy compare prices for you.
