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.