this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Just did my taxes and feel like the Medicare Levy i'm paying this year is huge! Feel like maybe it's time to bite the bullet and start looking into private health insurance plans?
I'm not sure about now but it used to make sense to get it because you were paying the same as a basic plan anyway. I ran with the "I'm just getting this to avoid the Medicare levy" nib plan for many years which used to be the cheapest.
Yeah I think now some of the plans may work out to be a bit cheaper than paying the levy! I guess if I get one with decent extras that may be useful
I have health insurance but I've got just the extras right now as I'm not in a financial space to do hospital and extras. But I do wonder if it'd be better if I didn't have to pay like $50 a month for health insurance. I wish that I could just pay for the individual ones I know I use (which is dental, optical, physio and psych) rather than pay for a bunch that I don't use (like orthodontics and hypno).
Look into HCF, my friend was telling me about them and they have this flex extras thing where you get $650 to put into whatever category as you want to that's covered (with a separate amount for optical only) unfortunately psychology covered, which is a real bummer.
Thanks for this, I'll have a look into it. Because I'm currently paying like $23 a fortnight with AHM, which isn't a lot but it is now that I'm only being paid monthly.
It might take some calculating to see if you get away with something basic or cheap extras if you’re going to use the and see if you can keep the cost around about what the levy will be.
The other thing maybe to consider is that if you’re over a certain age without health insurance, for every year that happens the health insurance cost goes up by 2% I think per year without private.
I forgot what it caps at, maybe at the 10 year mark might be the limit but overall it may not make a difference long term.