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Health Insurance for Families
When you have a family, you naturally want to take care of their health with the best medical protection possible. Private health insurance is crucial in allowing you to do just that. Although Australia's public health care system is generally very competent, it does have its shortfalls. For example, public hospitals are plagued by a shortage of beds and long waits are not uncommon before admission, even to the emergency ward.
Advantages of private health insurance
With private health insurance, you can rest assured that your family can enjoy the best hospital care possible because:
- you can choose your hospital and doctor for treatment
- with the right plan, you can have your choice of private hospitals and even get your own private hospital room
- your health fund takes care of your hospital costs (including accommodation, theatre costs and doctors fees)
- you'll generally have a shorter wait and greater freedom to choose your timing for surgery
- You can also benefit from health insurance by choosing Extras options that suit your family, like dental, optical, chiropractic and physiotherapy. As your family expands, so do the pairs of eyes that need to be checked, the sets of teeth that need straightening, and the number of bodies whose general health needs the best care available.
Selecting the right health insurance policy
The 'right' health insurance policy depends on your lifestyle, budget, and the needs of your family. To begin with, it's a good idea to understand the different options available in private health insurance – read Moneytime's introduction to private health insurance to see what you need to know before choosing health insurance.
Some basic questions to ask yourself include:
- Do I want basic hospital (public hospital or lower level private hospital) or higher level private hospital cover?
- Should I get Hospital Cover, Extras Cover or both?
- What features would be used most frequently by my family members?
- What 'just in case' features should I consider?
- Should I choose an Excess or Co-payment to reduce my premium?
Tips on choosing health insurance for the family
Firstly choose a policy that meets the needs of your family – for example, there's no point paying for an obstetrics feature when you've been sterilised and aren't planning any more kids. Choose cover that suits your needs so you're not paying for things you don't need.
But do keep in mind there are some important features that you may not be certain you need immediately, but may come in handy down the track. Covering them now will provide protection for when you do need them, especially because a lot of important features come with waiting periods. Moneytime, the health insurance comparison engine, shows you all the features you can choose full cover for when you're selecting private health insurance and you can compare health insurance policies between leading Australian health funds. Best of all, it's absolutely free to use.
Useful features for families with kids:
General Dental – Regular visits to the dentist are an important way to help keep your kids' teeth and gums healthy. The General Dental feature in Extras Cover ensures your kids are covered for regular check ups, x-rays, fillings and preventative procedures.
Optical – Eye tests from most optometrists are covered by Medicare in Australia, but private health insurance covers glasses (frames and lenses) and contact lenses, to correct eyesight and help your kids excel.
Orthodontic – Orthodontic benefits cover treatment to straighten and correct teeth and jaw alignment problems with devices such as braces and plates. Generally, problems can be diagnosed by age nine and treated by early teens. The earlier these issues are corrected the better, because growing teeth and jaws are still malleable and more easily corrected.
Physiotherapy – Children with neurological, developmental and respiratory disorders often require physiotherapy to help with joint movement, keep muscles working for normal movement and prevent or reduce scarring.
Podiatry – As children learn to walk, you may notice some abnormalities about their feet or gait that cause you concern. If your child has abnormally shaped toes, stiffness, limping, severe in-toeing (pigeon toed) or out-toeing, flat feet beyond the age of five or isn't walking at all by the age of two, podiatry may be useful to help them improve their condition and learn to walk properly.
Ways to save on health insurance
Everyone with a family knows that a dollar saved is a dollar earned. Here are some tips to save on health insurance for families:
- Compare private health insurance quotes from different health funds to get the best deal. Rather than doing the legwork yourself, use a comparison website like moneytime, because the research has been done for you.
- Pay a year's premium in advance just before the rate rise, which generally happen every year around April 1st. Paying before the increase locks in the previous year's rate with most health funds – this is a saving of around approximately 5%.
- Pay by direct debit – a number of funds offer 4-5% savings when you choose to pay by direct debit.
- Before you go to hospital for a medical procedure, check first to see if you'll be liable for a gap payment (this is when the specialist charges a higher fee than the government-set Medical Benefits Schedule). If you have gap cover, your Health Fund will cover this cost as long as your specialist agrees to be covered by the Health Fund.
- Get a plan that covers you for the things you need. You can recoup the cost of your premium if you use the benefits you're entitled to. Know the maximum benefits for features like dental, optical, physio, etc under your plan, and use them to improve your family's health and wellbeing.