Have you used our health insurance comparison? If so, were you able to find a policy that better suits your needs? Did you decide to switch funds or get separate hospital and extras policies to save money? Did you learn something you didn’t know about the private health system?
If you’ve got something positive to share about our health insurance comparison tool (member content), we’d love to feature your quote and photo on.our website. Please contact me at lmckenzie@choice.com.au or leave a comment below.
I used Choice’s and Privatehealth about 6 months ago, and found them comparable. Both returned the same top funds and checking again today Choice returned my present fund as #1 and my previous as #2. Well done!
The major advantage of Privatehealth is you can enter your exact current policy and it will provide a comparison feature. The Choice comparison is as easy to use as I have seen, and on my sample of 1 it got it right.
Comparisons difficult in real world
I had to have a back operation, and the surgeon wanted to know which Health Fund I was a member of. He explained that the cost of the out of pocket expenses would range from $500 (Medibank Private using their preferred Hospital) to thousands more for some other funds. We are a member of Medibank Private so paid the smaller amount. Checking after the operation with our family GP, this is common, so it is not really practical to just select your Health Fund by weekly / annual payments. It appears that unless you are prepared / have time to shop around Specialists and Hospitals if you need treatment / operations, it is better to stick with the largest most set up (ie. ones with agreements with Specialists and Hospitals) or you maybe out of pocket for large sums.
The ‘largest most setup’ might also be one of the cheapest or the most expensive. Which is the better offer you cannot tell until after the fact if you are satisfied or much poorer. One question is whether you have to go to a network provider or can chose any specialist you want.
Regardless that there are agreements with more or fewer specialists across funds, the agreements vary widely as you wrote; finding out what each agreement is with each specialist is impossible unless you are the fund’s negotiator or ring around to ask, and then it is too late since you are ‘in’ a fund and need treatment.
In any particular fund you might get the best cover with Specialist A and ordinary cover with Specialist B. Common sense suggests a fund paying specialists on the low end will pay all specialists on the low end, or on the high end as the case may be, but that is not a given in practice. It also probably varies across specialities where it could pay top dollar for cardiac and bottom dollar for ear/nose/throat, if that makes a point…
Calling the system financially opaque is too kind when it is purposefully protective of its income streams.
Used privatehealth.gov.au and the Choice comparison tool. I could definitely narrow down the possibilities faster on the Choice website. Also, Choice spelled out the excess and co-payments quite clearly and was shocked to see some policies that charge both an excess and a co-payment.
Privatehealth still has more policies to choose from, like… where is onemedifund in Choice? Would love to read a review about them.
"The Australian Government website PrivateHealth.gov.au or the Choice health insurance finder are good places to start. These include all registered health funds in Australia and allow you to compare what is covered in each policy.
Other “free” comparison sites may compare only some health funds and policies, or earn a fee per sale from insurers."
Well your site made the ABC News articles today: