Private Health - Insurance subsidies cut for top income earners

From July 1, 2010, tax subsidies for private health insurance will given out according to income. People who earn more than A$120,000 a year will get no subsidy at all. The subsidy previously gave a 30 percent discount on health insurance premiums.

People aged below 65 and earning A$75,000-A$90,000 will have the subsidy cut to 20 percent. Those earning A$90,000-A$120,000 and aged below 65, will have their subsidy cut to 10 percent. With the possibility of drops outs from private health cover, the government will implement an additional tax that will be paid by wealthy people who choose to drop out of their private health insurance. The new tax will will be 1.5 percent of their total income.

About Ozecover
Ozecover is a GENUINE health insurance comparison site that offer a free service to the Australian public.
To make sure you are getting the best possible coverage for the money you spend, visit our site at: http://www.ozecover.com.au

An unsolicited email about the Ozecover website...

Congratulations on the great website and for providing such a service. I have been wading through info sent out from health insurance funds for months with little progress, and the other comparison sites only represent a few companies. Your site is attractive, easy to navigate and gives exceptionally quick quotes without the need to fill out pages and pages of private information.
Thank you.
(I read about the site in the Age Newspaper today 15/4)
SW.
Melbourne

How does Ozecover make it's money?

Some website operators are paid very large commissions for selling health insurance, and they only compare health insurance products from the insurers that pay them.

Ozecover includes health cover from every insurer and ccompares every product for which we can get the information. It is our philosophy to cater for people who want to do genuine comparison shopping and who want to make informed choices.

Some insurers are happy to provide electronic links so customers can apply for the products they want directly through the Ozecover website without further hassle. These insurers pay us referral fees of 2.5% of the premiums for the business they get this way. We also allow these insurers to advertise on the site.

The referral fees do not affect the suggestions we make or the premiums you pay. In framing our suggestions, we match your Quick Quote responses to the products of every available insurer at the best prices we can find in the market.

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Save $1,000 per family on health insurance

"Most families are paying too much for their health insurance,” actuary Peter Carroll has told a Today Tonight program on Channel 7. “Families paying more than $200 a month can save as much as $1000 every year by shopping around on the internet.” Ozecover is the only commercial website that compares all available health insurance companies and sorts out the ten cheapest health cover deals for singles and for families based on a few simple questions. It empowers consumers.

Peter, who is an actuary and a director of Ozecover, a new website, says, “If you are worried about health insurance rates going up this week, check out the Ozecover website. It costs nothing to look and will show you how to get good cover for the best private hospitals in Australia for as little as $2 a day for a single person or $4 a day for a family. If you are paying any more, ask your health fund why.”

“With airfares, you can go on the internet and get a no frills ticket that gets you safely and easily where you want to go or you can pay a lot more for luxuries you can easily do without,” says Peter. ”With health insurance it is the same. You can use Ozecover to track down simple no frills health cover that does the job and saves you a lot of money, or you can keep paying for expensive frills and extras you might think are not worth the price, especially when times are hard.”

“Ozecover has all 38 health insurance companies in its database and sorts out the ten cheapest deals for singles and families based on a few simple questions. It gives power to consumers to shop around easily and anonymously, whether buying for the first time or comparing the value in existing insurance when rates and benefits are changing.”

Further information: http://www.ozecover.com.au or Peter Carroll on 1300 ECOVER.

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.