Health Funds

You can have a relationship with your dentist, but not with a health fund...

Health Insurance – Extras – Information to patients

Two very common questions we are asked are:

• Which health fund should I join?
• Is extras insurance worth it?

I will quote the CEO of the PHIAC (the Private Health Insurance Administrative Council), Mr Shaun Gath:

“having ‘extras’ private health insurance doesn’t make financial sense, and people would be better off paying for dental, optical and other general treatments out of their own pocket.”

and

“extras cover was an ‘irrational’ purchase for most people because the premium paid was more than the benefits derived.”

We couldn’t put it any better ourselves – our experience is that the amount of the rebates for treatment is extremely poor, and the health funds have so many rules and limitations on what one can claim, that we have found it is nearly impossible to get more back than you contribute.

The health funds have not raised their refunds for many common item numbers in over twenty years.

‘Choice’ magazine warns that many people pay more for the extras than the benefits they receive.

Our recommendation is to either:

• Don’t take out extras cover at all – stick with just medical
• If you have extras, use it up, then drop it at the next renewal date