I'm really considering taking out private health insurance.
Before now I don't know why I haven't thought twice about having a child through the public health system. Although the basics are covered by Medicare i'm thinking it's not enough. I want my own OB, who I want to choose, and I want to choose the hospital.
My dp previous job had health insurance but his current one doesn't yet and neither does mine.
So I've been looking around and tossing up what to get.
The BIG thing is the 12 month waiting period for claiming on obstetrics!!!
Ridiculous. I naively thought most waiting periods were 2 or 6 months (I guess this is just extras!)
There all around $1,700 a year just for me and cover hospital and extras.
But 12 months.... Gosh. If I my body will do the honor of conceiving I don't want to have to wait 12 months to try!
A lot of them say you know, 'the 12 month waiting period means you need to wait at least 3 months until you start trying'.
I understand this is so the hospital is covered but what about prenatal care and the OB? Will it cover that?
I think i'm going to be on the phone to these companies for a while to figure out what they offer (and hopefully there not pushy sales people!).
I researched them all online for around 3 hours last night and still don't have the answers I want (when I get set on something I focus so hard I look up '5 mins later' and it's hours later.. Lol).
At the moment i'm considering Hbf, hcf, hif, Medibank or Bupa.
I'll have to look in to them all further to see what they really offer, but at the moment I like Hbf for their personal touches. They give you 'what to expect when your expecting' and teddy for the bub when it's born! Only downside is they're based in WA so I'm not sure what range of services/ covered OBs they have here in NSW.
Furthermore, most will cover IVF (hopefully it doesn't come to that), but what about my condition at the moment?
It would be 'preexisting' so would it be another 12 months on that to claim for things? And how narrow or wide is the definition of my preexisting illness? It's not PCOS, at the moment there not sure what is causing the Secondary ammenhorea, or will they just not cover everything associated with what has been identified thus far?
Anyway sorry to all you that are not Australian, some of this is probably confusing but it has helped me get my thoughts together! Anyway I'd love to hear all opinions or what your private health insurance does/doesn't cover (even if you don't live in oz)
Ok now this I have a bit of experience with... I took out private health in April 09 and fell pregnant in Aug 09. My due date was April 10 and only three days after my PHI waiting period had passed. I am with Bupa. The just asked for a letter from my OB stating the my EDD was after the waiting period and they granted me two weeks grace before the end of my waiting period in case DS came early.
ReplyDeleteCan you have prenatal care with an OB without PHI? Yes. PHI does not cover the costs of consultations with your OB. At some point you will probably have to pay the pregnancy management fee as well but I'm not sure how that factors in if you are not actually planning to use the OB for the delivery.
If you want to do it privately, you need to get covered ASAP. :-)
Thanx! Definitely helpful! Still havn't decided though.
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