PM instead of insurance?

W

whitty

Member
I'm a bit over paying my health insurance every month and getting nothing for it, and for a while I have been thinking about just putting it on the mortgage and then paying out when it's needed anyway.

Has anyone else thought about buying PM with the money and holding that as your insurance? I was mainly thinking for insurance that if I didn't have it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Full hospital and extras cover for a family is about 3200/yr, and if i swapped my car insurance to 3rd party and put the extra in as well it could be $4k/yr, that's a lot of glasses and dental checkups. Of course the house and contents insurance will stay, not much good if your insurance bullion gets stolen. You could even use it in an unallocated system to make cashing it in quicker/easier than trying to sell physical at short notice.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
I forgot to mention, the insurance cover only covers some of the expenses anyway. Today my Wife ordered new prescription glasses (clear and sunglasses) and with $190 back from health insurance it still cost me over $500 from pocket.
 
Keep paying your health insurance is my advice, but thats only from personal experience. We had paid private health for yrs and not used it and then last yr I needed a procedure which cost over $40k and was life changing. I was able to have the procedure within 3 days. My cousin who has no P/H cover was in a similar situation and had to wait over 6 mths to get attention and almost died and went through a lot of pain and stress as a result of the delay. The thing with insurance is YOU ARE FAR BETTER OFF HAVING IT AND NOT NEEDING IT THAN NEEDING IT AND NOT HAVING IT. I find it bewildering that you can consider your house and contents insurance more important than your health insurance, surely your health and ability to earn are more important than any property.
 
Savige Silver said:
Keep paying your health insurance is my advice, but thats only from personal experience. We had paid private health for yrs and not used it and then last yr I needed a procedure which cost over $40k and was life changing. I was able to have the procedure within 3 days. My cousin who has no P/H cover was in a similar situation and had to wait over 6 mths to get attention and almost died and went through a lot of pain and stress as a result of the delay. The thing with insurance is YOU ARE FAR BETTER OFF HAVING IT AND NOT NEEDING IT THAN NEEDING IT AND NOT HAVING IT.
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thanks mate for sharing, can I ask the outcome had you not had insurance?
 
I possibly could have died. Ihad a checkup which revealed that the main artery feeding my heart muscle was blocked. No symptoms no pain no indication what so ever, so I guess I dodged a bullet. About 6 weeks after I had the procedure to rectify the situation I had chest pain and went back to the cardiologist and again he performed an angiogram only to find as they had changed my meds I was actually suffering from indigestion ( hang my head in shame) but at least I could have it checked out properly. Without the P/H cover I would probably still be waiting to find out what the problem was. The way I have always viewed P/H is just to pretend to myself that I am earning $50 per week less than I am
 
If I end up at the emergency dept I pay nothing, if I go anywhere as a private patient i get shafted. My son had his skull cut open at 3 months old because it fused early and we paid nothing (technically that was cosmetic surgery too). I'm not sure what medical issue would have to occur where I will not get treatment if it's life and death and i doubt the insurance would cover the full cost anyway. It's like getting partial insurance for certain things that might happen plus a whole heap that won't. I figure in the event of needing braces for the kids I should have that covered by then (10yrs).

If my house burns down and/or my insurance bullion gets stolen then it all goes to shit. My cars are not worth so much that losing either would crush me for eternity (and I want a 4wd anyway), one doubles in value with new wipers and a full tank.
 
whitty said:
My cars are not worth so much that losing either would crush me for eternity (and I want a 4wd anyway), one doubles in value with new wipers and a full tank.
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LOL :)
 
whitty said:
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Firstly drop the extras cover - that's where the insurance companies make their big profits - work out how much you are really getting back.

I assume you don't have to worry about the medicare levy surcharge, otherwise you would not be contemplating dropping your insurance just so you can pay an extra 1% of tax to the govt.
Find an insurer that offers a very high excess on hospital cover (ie more than $1000 a year for a family).
That can cut the cost of the insurance by about half - I'm not joking. Not many insurers offer it, but you can find them out there.
Certainly better off being covered with a high excess than not covered at all.

If you do have to worry about the medicare levy surcharge then you are probably making enough money to not worry about all of this in the first place :).
 
Trew is right. I don't have any extras cover and I have an excess of $500. You don't get enough back to make extras viable and an excess of $500 to $1000 won't break the bank but a $40k bill could or the stress of waiting to get free medical combined with your medical issues could kill you
 
Savige Silver said:
Keep paying your health insurance is my advice, but thats only from personal experience. We had paid private health for yrs and not used it and then last yr I needed a procedure which cost over $40k and was life changing. I was able to have the procedure within 3 days. My cousin who has no P/H cover was in a similar situation and had to wait over 6 mths to get attention and almost died and went through a lot of pain and stress as a result of the delay. The thing with insurance is YOU ARE FAR BETTER OFF HAVING IT AND NOT NEEDING IT THAN NEEDING IT AND NOT HAVING IT. I find it bewildering that you can consider your house and contents insurance more important than your health insurance, surely your health and ability to earn are more important than any property.
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I think hospital is vital... ancillary - buy PM.

I have top hospital for my family, but ditched ancillary (glassed and dentist) years ago. Best thing I did.

I am really glad that you had it mate, glad you did well too. Good heath to you.

Shiny
 
Health insurance is worth the money IMO, particularly if you are earning enough to be liable for the medicare levy surcharge. Once you earn a certain amount then it is actually cheaper to pay for health insurance than it is to pay for the medicare levy surcharge.

Your family's health is more important, far more important than metals or bricks and mortar.

FWIW I pay around 2.5k a year (family cover).
 
spannermonkey said:
What's insurance ?
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An agreement in which most customers pay an insurance company more money than they ever get back from them in case of an unfortunate event.
:)

To claim, you need to go through lots of paperwork and interrogation, spending a fair bit of time in order for your masters to give you a portion of what you've paid them. In a few isolated cases, people actually win by taking out insurance.

In many cases, you won't be covered by what you thought you were covered by :)
9 out of 10 customers could probably end up winning by not taking out insurance.
Insurance companies enjoy massive profits as a result :)
 
I don't have any insurance for our family, we can't afford it, BUT even if we could i don't think i would get it for me, the kids maybe but definatly not for myself.

We looked at it before we had kids, for the sole reason of we thought it would be better, but we found that, it is the same Doctors, Nurses, same level of care, so no reason to pony up the money, we saved the money and now am putting the Wife through Nursing school instead, this way it helps our Family out in the long tearm, and not just an extra night in hospital 4 years ago.

We have House insurance and car insurance, and w edo have to get me income protection for myself as i'm the only wage earner in the house, we looked at what we can NOT do with out, and a House and Car for me getting to work is it.

I know a few people that have had health insurance and still are out of pocket quite a lot of money, and this is not for boobie jobs, these are genuine health cases, that get the shaft because they did have insurance, do some reaserch before you buy any thing to do with the blood suckers :D.
 
I look at it this way if I am at work I am covered by Workcover, In a car,taxi,public transport,pedestrian I am covered by TAC, My Super has Death and Total Permanent Disabled insurance and income protection insurance (85% plus super) , My mortgage has loan insurance meaning it pays for up to 3 years as long as I provide doctors certificate that I am unable to work also trauma cover meaning if I have a heart attack, stroke etc or diagnosis of major illness you get $50,000 lump sum...........and there is Medicare! so Health insurance for me I would say no ...............but I do pay Ambulance cover!
 
BDR said:
It is the same Doctors, Nurses, same level of care, so no reason to pony up the money
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Insurance doesn't give you access to different doctors, that is true.

What you do get with insurance is choice.
Choice over who you see and when you might see them.
Choice to get treated quickly and not be on a waiting list for months.

Guess it depends how much you value having some control over your life when you get sick.
 
trew said:
BDR said:
It is the same Doctors, Nurses, same level of care, so no reason to pony up the money
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Insurance doesn't give you access to different doctors, that is true.

What you do get with insurance is choice.
Choice over who you see and when you might see them.
Choice to get treated quickly and not be on a waiting list for months.

Guess it depends how much you value having some control over your life when you get sick.
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not in an emergency mate
 
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