SINGLES HEALTH INSURANCE: CASE STUDY

How a single person saved $466.32 a year using moneytime

Profile:

Claire is a 29 year old single person who lives in NSW. She's fit, healthy and rarely gets sick. She chose to take out singles health insurance because she likes the peace of mind it brings in case of emergencies, and it also enables her to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge. She chose to take out a private hospital and extras health insurance with one of Australia's top private health funds, with a monthly premium of $92.06.

Claire's health insurance review:

After reading an article about the importance of reviewing your health cover, Claire looked at the details of her health insurance policy and realised that she was paying for items such as pregnancy, dialysis and non-cosmetic plastic surgery, all of which she was unlikely to use in the near future, but which increased the cost of her private health cover.

After looking through her options on moneytime, Claire decided to switch health insurance to HBA Young Singles Saver $50x4 Co-pay, at a monthly cost of $53.20. The $50x4 co-payment option means that she agrees to pay $50 per day or night up to the first four days/nights of her first hospital stay. Being fit and healthy, Claire was willing to take that chance as it reduced her up-front health insurance premium. 

Claire not only found a better health insurance option on moneytime, but she was also able to apply directly for her chosen health insurance policy within minutes on the same website. moneytime took care of the application for her, immediately sending through the details of her application to her new health fund, which terminated her health insurance previous policy on her behalf so she didn't need to contact her old health fund. All Claire had to do was contact her financial institution to discontinue her direct debits to her previous health fund.

Benefits:

• Claire's new private health insurance policy still gives her private hospital cover but she saves $38.86 per month - that's $466.32 a year, enough to buy two movie tickets every month and still have change left over, or splash on out a new outfit.
• With her co-payment option, she only pays for each day or night she is in hospital, capped after the first 4 days/nights. So if she goes in for a day surgery procedure, she'll only pay $50.
• Because the co-payment is capped, the most she'll pay for a hospital stay is $200. So even if she goes into hospital for a week and pays the full co-payment amount, she'll still save $216.32 at the end of the year.
• Claire receives the same amount of benefit for dental procedures, but she now also gets cover for acupuncture and naturopathy, which she didn't have cover for under her old health insurance policy.

Note: it's a good idea to review your private health insurance policy at least once a year, but the above case study is a guide only. Your personal circumstances should be considered when reviewing your health cover, as individual needs can vary greatly.

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