Do I need Gold/Silver/Bronze - CHOICE Quiz concerns

I’m concerned that the quiz may be a little misleading in its current form.

I did it a couple of times with different choices just to see what it gave me and was alarmed when I did a round with ‘cataract’ being the only need for specific cover (bearing in mind that its a pretty common affliction for people in Australia as we get older and apparently rates are increasing) and it told me I needed Gold cover without asking any other questions.

Medicare website says they pay for cataract surgery and any medically necessary aftermath things (tinted glasses, then proper eyewear for the long term if its needed) - so why on earth does the Quiz dropkick you straight to the most expensive cover?

(CHOICE do refer you to the great ‘do I need cover’ quiz further down the page but the quiz is at the top. A lot of people would just do the quiz, accept the result and follow the link to go compare their now-expensive options.)

Something cool on the same page: CHOICE had a response to someone else’s comment where they recommended the http://www.myhospitals.gov.au/ website. It lets us actually check the surgical wait times of local hospitals for procedures we might expect to need. I was happily surprised to find that my local public hospital had a waiting list of less than a month for everything I checked! Such a great resource.

5 Likes

Thanks for raising your concerns @Vonnible, I’ll pass it on to the health insurance team.

1 Like

I had a similar experience with the quiz - when I included cataracts and joint replacements was told I needed a Gold policy. But when I checked my own insurers website, I found these things can be covered in one of their Silver Plus policies at a considerably lower cost.

2 Likes