Private health insurance

[Bob]

In Australia, we have "Medicare" which is a no-frills health care system available to all Australians and permanent residents here.

 

In an emergency, such as suffering a heart attack or car accident, you are delivered to a local public hospital, treated and rehabilitated with no cost to the individual.

However, if you need a hip or knee replacement . . . . or anything which is not life threatening and needs immediate attention . . . . then you will be waiting to be treated in a public hospital until the State government can arrange surgery for you. You could be waiting months in pain.

 

This where private health insurance comes in.

With private, you can go to any hospital . . . . . public or private . . . . . get treated immediately and it is affordable to do so, instead of costing many thousands of $$$$$ if not insured.

 

The next thing is, anyone joining a private health fund and taking out private health insurance has to pay a 2% "loading" for every year they are over 30 years of age, for 10 years. The basic rate then kicks in afterwards.

Young people seldom need surgery and it's only as we get older that hospital visits for surgery become more a fact of life, hence the loading for people over 30.

As an example, if you are 40 years old, you are 10 years older than a 30 year old, meaning you have to pay 2% x 10 (years older) = 20% extra for your health insurance than a 30 year old, for the next 10 years.

 

This all came about in 2000, but Australians, like myself, who already had private health insurance weren't required to pay any loading while they still kept paying their health insurance, even though we are well over 30 years of age by now.

We do not have to pay any loading on our health insurance because we are loyal health insurance members.

 

Previous to 2000, many Australians would take out health insurance, get their surgery done at great expense and then leave the health insurance fund. This was costly to the health insurers and pushed insurance premiums up to near unaffordable levels, prompting the Australian government to bring in a loading and waiting periods for surgery on joining.

 

If you aren't living in Australia, you can't be expected to pay for health insurance in Australia, but once you begin living here, you have only three months grace period, as newcomers, to take out private health insurance and get health insurance premiums at the base rate, without any loading.

 

After three months of activating your permanent resident visa, on joining you will be required to pay a loading on your private health insurance premiums for people over 30 years old.

 

If you intend to simply come to Australia, activate your PR visa, then go back to South Africa for a length of time to pack up, then go and see a health fund, join up while in Australia, and tell them you are leaving soon to go back to South Africa to pack up and return to Australia at a later date.

You can suspend health insurance premiums while out of Australia.

They will suspend your premiums until such time as you are back in Australia and you won't be liable for the loading on your health insurance premiums because you had already joined previously when you were activating your visa and had joined within the three months grace period.

 

This week, I had a coffee with an old South African mate and his wife, who has told me he activated his PR visa in 2009, spent two weeks in Australia then flew back to Port Elizabeth. Next year he migrated to Australia with all his household possessions but on taking out private health insurance was told he had a 70% extra loading on his premiums (65 years of age) for the next 10 years because he had been a permanent resident of Australia since activating his visa a year earlier in 2009.

 

For the next 10 years, he now pays $5 000 a year instead of $3 000 a year for private health insurance.

 

Nobody told him about private health insurance in Australia and the 3 months "grace" period to be able to join up and not be slugged with a loading on the premiums.

[Erik]

I'm almost sure that is not completely how it works. As far as I know you only activate your visa, when you come over for that week/2 week "holiday". As far as the government is concerned you are only a permanent resident when you settle permanently in Australia. We did the same and I have no loading on my medical insurance. I think someone is applying the wrong rules making sure they profit from it...

 

I might be wrong, but I would shop around if I was them.

[JackoFam]

We are hopefully activating our visa this July and had assumed the 3 month grace period kicked in from when we made the actual move, but now I see we will have to follow Bobs suggestion and join medical insurance on our activation trip already. Does anyone have confirmation of this?

[Mara]

Quite frankly I am also sure that the information is wrong. If this was the case you would be able to get a Medicare card when you just come to activate, but you cannot do so, you can only get a Medicare card  when you come to settle. Someone seems to have the facts pretty wrong in their interpretation of the rules.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Mara

[Bob]

It would seem that I have to check up on this further with my own health fund and get back to you.

[RedPanda]

We ran into the issue of a confusion between activating and immigrating. I am convinced that different departments interpret the rules differently eg. We could not join MediCare (we tried and were told that we do not show on the system as having immigrated yet), but we were able to activate bank accounts as permanent residents, and were able to obtain drivers licenses and TFNs as well. The options on the landing card that we needed to fill in on the plane were also not quite right, since there was no 'Visa activation' option.

Bottom line: I think the whole matter is confusing, and that different people/officials can quite correctly be telling you different stories.

[Mara]

@RedPanda from memory, the card you fill in on the plane, asks how long you will be spending in Australia... if you fill in three weeks, then they regard you as a visitor, even though you are activating your visa. The next time when you come to settle, then you will click the box that you are emigrating (not sure if that is the exact words, but it is something like that.)

 

 

[SandraDee]

once you join medicare , you have 1 year to get private insurance. They give you a special letter to give to the medical aid informing them that you are a new immigrant.  Well thats how it works in Queensland anyway.  

[Tiermelk]

4 hours ago, SandraDee said:

once you join medicare , you have 1 year to get private insurance. They give you a special letter to give to the medical aid informing them that you are a new immigrant.  Well thats how it works in Queensland anyway.  

 

What she said.  (http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/healthinsurance/incentivessurcharges/lifetimehealthcover.htm)

Also depending on your family income it might be wise to get that private health insurance immediately as they slap you with some extra taxes if you don`t have the private insurance and earn over a certain amount PA.  I calculated this incorrectly in our first year and in the end we paid +- as much extra tax as the private insurance would have been for the year.

[Bob]

I know it's soon after turning 31 for Australians, because my son is now 33 and had to take out health insurance on turning 31 to avoid an extra 2% each year on top of his premiums.

It seems it's a year . . . . but the point is that you cannot leave it indefinitely.

South Africans migrating to Australia, who are aged 31 or older, need to take into account that there is a 2% loading (for each year they are aged over 30) on top of the health insurance premiums if they leave it too long to take out cover.

For me personally, I've been cancelling my private health while I've travelled around Britain and Europe these past three years for a lot of the time. The 1094 day overseas without health insurance rule in my lifetime is new to me, and have to take this into consideration since my youngest daughter now lives in Canada, and at some stage, a long visit of some months will be on the cards.

[Marcodasilva]

As a matter of interest who are good Pvt health insurers in Perth?

[Mara]

We have been with HCF for many years and never been disappointed.  We have 100% hospital cover, no extras. We are citizens, so you would need PR to join them.

[Marcodasilva]

Thanks Mara, fortunatley we have our PR 189, we kust need to stamp and arrive in December. I will investigate cost of HCF. 

[Mara]

@Marcodasilva just remember, you need to check which hospitals they would cover. In general they cover all government hospitals (you can either attend as a private or government patient) and then they have a list of private hospitals that they have agreements with on the charges. I had major surgery four years ago, came to around $70,000, and I walked out of the hospital without paying a cent.

[Marcodasilva]

Thank you, will keep this in mind and likely ask more questions. Aus healthcare seems a little more complex than SA's, but im sure a lot better for a lot cheaper. Private healthcare in SA is very costly if you want good cover  

[Eduan]

This makes from some good reading, Thx everyone.

i belief we will have our 189's soon (currently on 457), so then we need to cancel the BUPAs and get something else.

[Tiermelk]

1 hour ago, Eduan said:

This makes from some good reading, Thx everyone.

i belief we will have our 189's soon (currently on 457), so then we need to cancel the BUPAs and get something else.

 

You can stay with BUPA if you like, we are on PR and make use of BUPA. I guess you`ll just move over to another plan.