The Importance of hospital and extras cover
Taking hospital cover helps you and your family to avoid the waiting list of the elective surgery or choose a preferred doctor. It also serves as a financial safety cover and even saves you from an unexpected tax hike. If you want to do some saving on the Medicare Levy Surcharge, here is when a good hospital cover matter.
What does a hospital cover mean?
A hospital cover is only offered by private health funds. The best part is that it can cover a large share of your hospitalization bills like your operation theatre fees, accommodation, doctor’s fees and medicine. You could be admitted to both public and private hospitals as a private patient with a well-planned hospital cover.
Hospital cover policies mostly differ between providers. For e.g. different health funds will always have different exclusions, inclusions, excess (what you have to pay if you are admitted in a hospital), and even out of pocket expenses i.e. the gap between what you are expected to contribute, and what is paid by the health fund.
The 4 main product tiers of a hospital cover are:
- Basic Cover
- Bronze Cover
- Silver Cover
- Gold Cover
What does extras cover mean?
Extras cover is also called general or ancillary cover as it provides various benefits for services not mostly covered by Medicare. It is another type of health insurance and includes general treatments like optical, dental, chiropractic and physiotherapy. The health funds offered by some reputed insurance companies typically provide hospital cover and a mix of extras under a combination policy.
As per the rules of the Government, it can be classified under 3 categories that help you to compare policies on the basis of what they do and what they don’t include.
The 3 categories of extras are:
- Basic Cover
This covers all the other requirements in policies which medium or comprehensive do not cover.
- Comprehensive
These policies have to include major and general dental, endodontic, optical and orthodontic, physiotherapy and podiatry, psychology, chiropractic and non-PBS pharmaceuticals.
- Medium Cover
This must include most major and general endodontic; dental; and any 5 of the following services: Chiropractic (spinal adjustments), physiotherapy and podiatry, orthodontic, optical and non-PBS pharmaceuticals.
What is the main benefit of a hospital cover?
One of the main benefits of a hospital cover is peace of mind. It is time to rethink about your health care needs. Australia is lucky to have a precise and a strong public health care system. But still Medicare has its own kinds of limitations. A private health care system can help your family and you to avoid the waiting lists of elective surgery or choose a preferred doctor.
With iSelect, you can even compare hospitals as well as extras and packages to find the best policy as per your requirement. Try comparing prices and various benefits side by side to find a balanced package. You can even mix and match health insurance providers, in order to finally get what you want.
