Tyrone Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Good morning guys,I got home last night to receive an email from IMAN to obviously notify me of the increase in my health insurance premium. This is not the big surprise, but rather the amount of the increase.My wife and I are on the "couples" tariff for their top plan previously known as the 320 plan. What scares me is that our monthly premium will be increasing by about 25%!2010: AU 466/month (1 Apr 2010 to 31 Mar 2011)2011: AU 582/month (1 Apr 2011 to 31 Mar 2012)Is this what others are seeing on other plans with IMAN, and I would love feedback from members that are with HBA, Medibank Private, etc.Anyone done a good comparison between them to look at value for money? I must admit that we have had no hassle whatsoever with IMAN since joining, and they have always paid claims quickly and without any quibbles. (Not that we claim very often. We seem to be healthy! :-))Another benefit that will be changing is the credit facility for when you are traveling (perhaps to go back to ZA for a family visit). They allow you to claim the premium (pro-rata) for when you are out of the country as you are not covered medically by them, but this credit then allows for travel insurance to be bought. This facility is still available, BUT one of the new conditions are that you have to be away for at least 4 weeks! So this means that along with the premium increases, travel insurance is required while they reap in money by not needing to provide cover for the 2-3 weeks we would typically go away to ZA every year.Maybe I am ranting to much and don't see things objectively. Please share your thoughts!Regards,Tyrone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SANZOZ Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 We are with Medibank Private (also on a 457) and ours is going up by $32. We currently pay $406 and thought that was a lot! We are 2 adults and a baby. Before the baby we never really claimed and therefore had excellent service and then the baby came along and we started claiming and initially it was brilliant - we got the money straight back into our accounts immediately when we claimed. THEN they decided that all processing should be done in Melbourne and that is where the monumental screw ups started. They don't pay us immediately anymore. They have made such a mess of our claims so many times now that I have to restrain myself on the phone to be nice when ringing them. I waited about 4 months for some of our claims and it was not small amounts. Nobody can ever just look something up on the system either... its like it is in some kind of black hole once it is out of my hands!The situation has improved slightly because I have started doing GP claims online - I get them pretty quickly now. But for extras I need to go into a branch and they send it off. And just lastnight I got another screw up. I am waiting for a cheque to pay the pathologists from November last year and I just got one but instead they have made it out to the referring doctor. Now I have to get on the phone with them AGAIN. So yes, our premiums are lower than yours but we are not impressed with the service we have received. The only reason we are not changing over right now is familiarity! Once we have PR we will do some research on what the best cover will be for us with another insurer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone Posted March 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Thank you SANZOZ,It is good that you mention the little one. Did Medibank Private cover 100% of Obstetrics and newborn infant expenses, or were they capped at MBS rates? We don't have any little ones, and I don't think we plan on having any immediately, but as I told someone earlier, the moment we switch or go to a cheaper plan, Murphy steps in and we are left with the "gebakte pere"! :-)Regards,Tyrone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SANZOZ Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Our plan also included obstetrics with the 12 month waiting period. Luckily Murphy stepped in a few months after we arrived and our son was born a month after the waiting periods were up. We went with a private obstetrician and ended up about $4500 out of pocket for that but I don't know if that is the case with everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smartie Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Hi,We are also with Medibank on a 457 visa. My husband has had some problems with his throat of late and has been in and out of hospital for the last 6 months and i feel like all I have been doing is paying Medibank/doctors of late. I used to prepay everything and claim back but now I send everything to Medibank and get them to do it all for me as I refuse to pay the new Medibank premium plus prepay accounts.The lady at Medibank said to me that we should get everything that someone on Medicare gets - personally i dont agree with that but would be interested in hearing your comments on that one !!!Sometimes I feel as though we are being ripped off because we are classed as VISITORS. If he had gone to a private hospital I would have understood but he went state as the hospital seemed ok and we did not wanna pay exhorbitant prices just to be in a private hospital.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smartie Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Hi,We are also with Medibank on a 457 visa. My husband has had some problems with his throat of late and has been in and out of hospital for the last 6 months and i feel like all I have been doing is paying Medibank/doctors of late. I used to prepay everything and claim back but now I send everything to Medibank and get them to do it all for me as I refuse to pay the new Medibank premium plus prepay accounts.The lady at Medibank said to me that we should get everything that someone on Medicare gets - personally i dont agree with that but would be interested in hearing your comments on that one !!!Sometimes I feel as though we are being ripped off because we are classed as VISITORS. If he had gone to a private hospital I would have understood but he went state as the hospital seemed ok and we did not wanna pay exhorbitant prices just to be in a private hospital.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermanpaw Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 My wife and I are on the "couples" tariff for their top plan previously known as the 320 plan. What scares me is that our monthly premium will be increasing by about 25%!2010: AU 466/month (1 Apr 2010 to 31 Mar 2011)2011: AU 582/month (1 Apr 2011 to 31 Mar 2012)Another benefit that will be changing is the credit facility for when you are traveling (perhaps to go back to ZA for a family visit). They allow you to claim the premium (pro-rata) for when you are out of the country as you are not covered medically by them, but this credit then allows for travel insurance to be bought. This facility is still available, BUT one of the new conditions are that you have to be away for at least 4 weeks! So this means that along with the premium increases, travel insurance is required while they reap in money by not needing to provide cover for the 2-3 weeks we would typically go away to ZA every year.Our premium on the 120 plan went from $170.00 to $210.00 per month. Lost 3 benifits 1. Emergency department visits not for emergencies or not resulting in hospitalization. 2. Cash in hospital option 3. Time away cover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynnie Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 So how do you choose a cover? We are looking at Medibank, Australia Unity, Iman and HCF - difficult to make a choice Any advice or comments would be much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SANZOZ Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Yeah Smartie, I heard the same thing. Basically Medibank acts as our Medicare while we are on the 457. I asked the lady at Medibank what difference it would make then when we are permanent residents and she said our premium would come down because Medicare would cover a lot of the stuff they now cover, and we would really need Medibank only for Dental and other extras. Personally I am going to give them the boot as soon as we have PR! I cannot stand how bad the service has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrone Posted March 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Good evening guys,The feedback has been great. It does however seem that Medibank Private is a bit of a prickly pear. As I mentioned before, IMAN has been really awesome. No quibbles and it does seem that their 320 plan (the one we are on) provides really good cover comparatively. Does anyone have some experience to share on the other providers like HCF, HBA, etc.?It would be good if anyone has a contact to someone in the industry that would be able to take a look at the benefits to give an educated opinion. (half the benefits I don't even understand!) I did ring up HBA to find out what their cover would cost and they quoted me their platinum package for a couple (ages 32 & 30) at A$441 per month. The sales person was not able to tell me what the new premium will be with the upcoming increases in Apr/May, and I have also not been able to fully compare our current cover to the platinum package. (I do know that one difference is for obstetrics is that the platinum package covers 100% of MBS rates, where the 320 plan with IMAN covers 100% of obstetrics, note not coupled to MBS rates)So the comparison with the various health insurance out there is not so straight forward! (like Murphy would allow it to be simple!)Any other input would be greatly appreciated."Cheers",Tyrone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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