Health Insurance.

[Pushka]

I have a policy with unlimited general dental and a top extras package - I.e. I get back 85% of the schedule fee. Had dentist today to replace 3 old amalgam fillings - my gap payment was more than the benefit paid! $500 out of pocket.

I just don’t see the value. And the schedule fee is nothing more than a base rate fee never used to calculate bills.

 

[Renato1]

Extras cover doesn’t include hospital stuff.

I know - what I meant was that typically I'd get a good chunk of money back from Extras and nothing from Hospital cover, until last year and this year, where the hospital money was far greater.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Pushka]

So it seems that Assure have processed our transfer from BUPA just fine. Cards arrived and commence from April 2. I should receive a refund from BUPA for 2 weeks. I wonder how many have fled.

 

[rock86]

So it seems that Assure have processed our transfer from BUPA just fine. Cards arrived and commence from April 2. I should receive a refund from BUPA for 2 weeks. I wonder how many have fled.

I'm seriously considering it, and then after we get the bonus points from Assure head to Nurses & Midwifes Health Fund, seems the policies are very competitive and as my wife is a nurse we have access to the fund - has anyone else on here ever been with them?

BUPA can go jump, even with the impending changes, which are quite a rort, they've also bumped our cover up by 5% - no thanks.

 

[Pushka]

I'm seriously considering it, and then after we get the bonus points from Assure head to Nurses & Midwifes Health Fund, seems the policies are very competitive and as my wife is a nurse we have access to the fund - has anyone else on here ever been with them?

BUPA can go jump, even with the impending changes, which are quite a rort, they've also bumped our cover up by 5% - no thanks.

Of course our BUPA account still seems active . I’ve emailed them from their website and it won’t surprise me one bit if they process another monthly premium on 16 April. And as for getting a refund, I should take bets on when.

 

[VPS]

@Pushka any reason why you went Qantas rather than Defence

 

[Pushka]

@Pushka any reason why you went Qantas rather than Defence

It was a little complicated. We had separate BUPA policies and Defence Health wouldn’t progress until they could speak to hubby. Who is rarely home. I just wanted to get it done and dealt with and could see that I could organise it quickly with Assure. The policies were similar, maybe Defence a little cheaper. I’d be happy to go with Defence otherwise.

 

[debgow]

I have always had no excess policies. With husband and daughter with kidney disease has been worth it.

 

[cgichard]

I'm trying to compare PHI policies with "no pregnancy" cover. Seems hard to search for. So far I've identified GMHBA Gold Hospital level 2, Australian Unity Classic, Phoenix Top Hospital Essentials (new, not yet on their website): all via the Membersown.com.au website for non-profit funds. Are there others I should be comparing?
So far, I've found that excluding pregnancy & related services seems to make surprisingly little difference to the overall cost.
Does anyone have experience with Phoenix?

 

[Pushka]

At last I think I am done with BUPA. They keep trying to tell me not to leave. I keep saying just cancel as I asked. They don’t like being rejected do they!

 

[Pushka]

I cannot believe the dirty tricks of BUPA. Our policy is payable each month in advance and we cancelled on 2nd April, in writing. Yet BUPA have seen fit to make a withdrawal yesterday on to the credit card. Needless to say AMEX now have to deal with 2 disputed transactions.

 

[docjames]

Was reflecting on this (again) recently while travelling and watching the myriad of airlines and their different "models" (LCC, full service, what's included in fares, what's not).

Seems that PHI is one of the last industries around without component pricing.

ie. Here are the (two-three package) options, choose one even if 75% of the stuff in the package you don't need. Rather than pick and mix the pieces of cover you want and charge per piece of cover (akin more to the way LCCs now operate).

The cynic in me can imagine why this might be.

 

[Pushka]

I cannot believe the dirty tricks of BUPA. Our policy is payable each month in advance and we cancelled on 2nd April, in writing. Yet BUPA have seen fit to make a withdrawal yesterday on to the credit card. Needless to say AMEX now have to deal with 2 disputed transactions.

So we received our decree nisi statement from Bupa, dated April 2. So why they saw fit to charge us in mid April for another month is breathtaking. Do we need a royal commission into health funds?

 

[love_the_life]

So we received our decree nisi statement from Bupa, dated April 2. So why they saw fit to charge us in mid April for another month is breathtaking. Do we need a royal commission into health funds?

Health* funds are rogues too.

* I don't have experience of all of them so there might be a good one out there somewhere

 

[JohnK]

I thought $120/month for basic hospital and extras was too much.

Checked CompareTheMarket and iSelect and both are throwing up premiums around $200-$210.

Checked NIB and their basic hospital and extras package and it is $100 with Tier 0 25% included but with Tier 2 8% the premium is $122. Bupa has basic hospital and extras for $147 but basic hospital is $110 and extras are $23 and I'm struggling to add up.

I hope people aren't buying policies from the comparison websites.

 

[jkbaus]

I thought $120/month for basic hospital and extras was too much.

Checked CompareTheMarket and iSelect and both are throwing up premiums around $200-$210.

Checked NIB and their basic hospital and extras package and it is $100 with Tier 0 25% included but with Tier 2 8% the premium is $122. Bupa has basic hospital and extras for $147 but basic hospital is $110 and extras are $23 and I'm struggling to add up.

I hope people aren't buying policies from the comparison websites.

Those comparison companies have never been good due to commissions, ownership, etc.

For comparison of policies you can use the government site,
privatehealth.gov.au Search

Also good to have a look at
Review of insurance comparison sites - CHOICE

And yes, arithmetic on the specific sites you looked at is strange. Did you look if the different prices provided by an individual provider offered any product differences?

 

[Pushka]

MrP and I both had separate BUPA policies. Cheaper at the time. Closed them and moved to Qantas in April. My email was registered for both. He always gets any comms for his former policies, I get none. Today he received a Come Back and get 100,000 Velocity points. Yeah. Nup. Don’t even have a velocity account. I didn’t get the offer. BUPA are dead to me.

 

[Quickstatus]

Everyone in Assure. Do you know the health fund behind it?

 

[Pushka]

Everyone in Assure. Do you know the health fund behind it?

Yep. I just wanted to send BUPA a message.

 

[JohnM]

Everyone in Assure. Do you know the health fund behind it?

NIB - I also posted that at post #134.