What is Private Health Insurance?
Private health insurance can be taken out in a few ways:
- Hospital only insurance, which is used for admissions to hospital as a private patient.
- Extras only insurance, which is cover for non-hospital treatments such as dental, optical, physio and other complementary therapies.
- Combined cover is when you take out both hospital and extras insurance together.
There are plenty of reasons private hospital cover is important, such as:
- knowing you can have access to private hospitals with state-of-the-art facilities
- being able to choose your doctor
- not having to spend months (even years) on a public hospital waiting list by going into a private hospital
- if you earn over the threshold for Medicare Levy Surcharge (currently $90,000 for singles and $180,000 for families), you may save tax by not having to pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge
- avoiding a Lifetime Health Cover loading (by having hospital cover before you turn 31)
When you think about health insurance it’s important to think about more than just the cost – it’s about giving you more choice for your healthcare, less time waiting for the services you need and (most importantly) the peace of mind to know that you’ll be looked after when you need it most.
Want to know more? Read our article on the benefits of private health insurance.
