Health and trauma insurance complement each other

"Trauma (or critical illness) cover is not a substitute for health insurance," Peter Carroll, an actuary with the consumer website Ozecover, told over 200 delegates at the Risk Store Conference on the Sunshine Coast this month, "they complement each other."

"Health insurance provides health cover for private hospital treatment, with community rated premiums and rebates for everyone, together with additional tax benefits for people paying the Medicare Levy Surcharge. No other form of insurance can match that. But in serious situations such as heart bypass surgery or cancer, additional cover is needed to provide financial support for patients who cannot drive or work, and are undergoing debilitating drug, chemo, radiation and hormone therapies often associated with these traumatic health conditions,” said Carroll. "That is where trauma cover comes in. The aftermath of these serious illnesses can affect families for many years. Health insurance Is a bargain as far as it goes but, ideally, consumers who want full cover for major illnesses need both private health insurance from a health cover fund and trauma or critical illness cover from a life company.”
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What are the health cover options for single parents?

You can choose to purchase single health cover just for yourself and avoid the extra cost of private health insurance for your children. This is the most economical option available and offers the benefits under lifetime health cover and enables you to avoid the 1% Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Healthy children are generally very low users of private health care and many parents are content with using Medicare coverage and, if they need private health services for their children, paying for it directly without medical insurance.

If you want private health cover for your children as well as for yourself, but not for an adult partner, some health insurance companies offer discounted rates for single parents. The discount is usually between 15% and 25% on the full family rates.

Single parent cover is an economical option if you are planning to have a baby and you want private health insurance for the mother and children, but not for the father. Newborn babies do sometimes need very expensive health care, especially if they are premature.

To make sure you are getting the very best Health cover for you money, go to www.ozecover.com.au. We search and compare every Australian health insurance company and product for you at no charge.

What should be done if you plan to have a baby?

We suggest you consider health cover both for you and for your baby.

For you, we suggest you check there is no exclusion for pregnancy, childbirth, obstetrics or similar on your private hospital cover. Most health insurance funds will not pay full benefits for childbirth until you have held your health insurance for 9 months or 12 months, so we suggest you have your private hospital cover in place at least a year before you plan to have your baby.

If you have singles only health cover or couples only health cover, usually health insurers will not pay benefits for children, even for newborn babies, but they will allow you to upgrade to family health cover while you are pregnant so your baby will be covered too. You should check this with your particular insurer.

If you already have couples cover, you may as well upgrade to family cover as soon as you start thinking about having a baby, because very often there is no extra cost.

To compare private health insurance and find the best and cheapest option for private health cover you and your family you can go to www.ozecover.com.au. The service costs you nothing and its the only one that compares every health insurance company and every product in Australia. Your quote is personalised, based on your answers to some simple questions.

Is it better to insure as a couple or as two singles?

If you do not want cover for dependent children, you and your partner might consider insuring separately as singles instead of as a couple.

Some health Insurance companies offer a discount for couples, so that can be a consideration, but the discount is usually quite small. Other insurers charge the same for a couple as they do for two singles taking out the same product.

If you insure as two singles, you have the flexibility to buy separate products reflecting the different health cover needs and circumstances of each person.

Also, if you choose cover with a deductible, it can be better to have separate deductibles at the single level (for example, $500 each) rather than one common deductible at the corresponding couple level ($1,000). Some insurers charge the full deductible if just one person makes a claim.

Details of discounts for couples, and how deductibles and other features work with a shared policy, are things you should ask the insurer when you apply for a policy.

To compare private health insurance and find the best and cheapest option for private health cover you and your family you can go to www.ozecover.com.au. The service costs you nothing and its the only one that compares every health insurance company and every product in Australia. Your quote is personalised, based on your answers to some simple questions.

Can I avoid the gap in cover?

If you go to hospital as a private patient, there can be unexpected gaps between the charges you incur and the benefits you get from Medicare and from your private health insurance. These gaps can be very substantial.

Gaps of this kind can arise from the policies of the hospital itself and of the medical practitioners that use that hospital.

If you ask, your insurer will provide you with details of hospitals where they have arrangements to avoid or restrict gap charges. Before you go to any particular hospital, it is a good idea to contact your insurer and double check the situation. You may choose to exercise your rights as a consumer to choose another hospital.

Of course, if you have a deductible or copayments on your health cover, you will have to pay those costs even if there is an agreement between your insurer and the hospital. However some hospitals will waive these too, so it is at least worth asking the question.

Doctors in Australia are free to charge whatever fees they believe are appropriate for their private services. However, many doctors also have arrangements with hospitals and with health insurance companies to limit the gaps between their fees and the amounts recoverable from Medicare and from private insurance.

Again, it is prudent to ask your doctor about charges, for the doctor’s
own services and also for those of any specialists (such as surgeons, anaesthetists and radiologists) that may be involved in your care.

You will not be charged more if you ask, and you may be charged less.

To compare health insurance and find the best and cheapest option for health cover you and your family you can go to www.ozecover.com.au. The service costs you nothing and its the only one that compares every health insurance company and every product in Australia. Your quote is personalised, based on your answers to some simple questions.

Health insurance premiums may go up in April

Every year the health insurance companies are required to update their product information and are then allowed to modify their pricing. This means that rates may go up in April. It is smart to lock in your health insurance now to avoid paying more.

To compare private health insurance and find the best and cheapest option for private health cover you and your family you can go to www.ozecover.com.au. The service costs you nothing and its the only one that compares every health insurance company and every product in Australia. Your quote is personalised, based on your answers to some simple questions.

How do I get value from private health cover?

It depends on whether you are likely to be a health insurance high claimer or a low claimer.

For Health cover high claimers - people who are frequent users of expensive private health insurance services such as prostheses, cosmetic surgery, orthodontics, IVF treatments - even the most expensive private health insurance products can be good value so long as the benefits exceed the premiums.

If you are likely to be a health insurance low claimer, private health insurance companies will consider you a very valuable customer and competition for your business is fierce. This means you can save real money by choosing your health cover wisely.

There are a number of methods that health insurance companies use to offer value to low claiming customers - the main ones are described below.

• Deductible (sometimes called a front-end deductible or excess) – you pay the first part of the total cost of a claim and your insurance cover starts after that. For example, under a hospital cover with a deductible of $500, you pay the first $500 of any claim and your insurer pays the balance. Hospital products with a deductible in excess of $500 per person or $1,000 per family do not qualify for avoidance of the 1% Medicare Levy Surcharge on high taxable incomes. Ozecover for example, does not suggest these non-qualifying hospital products.
• Co-payments (sometimes called moieties) - you make a contribution towards the cost of items which you claim, and your insurance pays the balance of the cost. For example, under a hospital cover with a co payment, you may pay $50 a day towards your accommodation in hospital or, with general cover, you may pay 30% of the cost of dental procedures, and your insurance pays the balance. Unlike deductibles, co payments may be used without restriction on hospital products that qualify for avoidance of the extra 1% Medicare levy. However, Ozecover again does not suggest products where co payments for hospital accommodation are more than $100 a day.
• Exclusions - these exclude cover for specified treatments. Common exclusions offered are for items related to childbirth, for cosmetic surgery and for expensive orthopedic procedures such as hip and knee replacements. Accepting exclusions can be a useful way of reducing premiums for people who, bec
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  ause of their circumstances or age, are most unlikely to want the excluded health insurance services.
• Benefit limits - restrict the maximum benefits an insurer will pay for particular services or in total. There are such limits on most private health insurance products to deter customers with frequent or sizable claims and to help keep health insurance premiums down for low claimers.

It is clearly important to do your research before deciding on your Private health insurance cover. Ozecover provides the only no-charge service in Australia, that allows you to do a comparison of every health insurance company and every product. Get your private health insurance quote now.