Health Insurance as a product provides for reimbursement of expenses and costs incurred for hospitalization for specified injuries, illnesses, and/or diseases. It covers the expenses incurred during hospitalization as well as pre and post-hospitalization expenses. There are a number of Health Insurance providers in the Australian market, who offer reasonably competitive insurance packages. In modern times, getting medical treatment outside our homes is a costly proposition and therefore health insurance as a product and as an industry is flourishing.

Considering the multiple options that are available to an Australian citizen with respect to purchasing health insurance, let us briefly analyze the parameters to choose between commonly available health insurance products.

Category of Health Insurance Policy to be taken- For the first time buyer, the most important decision that needs to be taken is, whether to opt for individual insurance polices for each family member, or a family floater health insurance policy.

An individual policy means a separate policy for each of the family members. That means if in a family of three members, each of the family member is covered for a specified amount, then eligible hospitalization expenses incurred up to that limit for that particular individual will be reimbursed.

In a family floater plan the limit can be utilized by any of the family member. If the entire family takes a family floater plan for an amount of Australian Dollar (AUD) 100 thousand and eligible expenses incurred for one of the members is AUD 100 thousand, it will be fully reimbursed. In many ways the family floater plan offers flexibility in terms of utilizing the overall coverage among the family as a group.
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Prima-facie therefore, it would seem that a family floater plan is always more beneficial for a family. However, there are several other considerations that need to be taken into account before taking this decision.

There are disadvantages to a family floater policy as well. The policy will be renewed only till the senior most member of the family attains the maximum age of renew-ability allowed by that company. At that stage, the other family members will need to take a fresh policy without having the benefit of their claim history and pre-existing disease coverage that comes from continuous renewal of the policy.

The same clause applies to children who reach the maximum age (25 years in most cases) after which they will need to buy separate policies, without the benefit of the earlier continuous coverage that they have enjoyed under the family floater policy.

Amount of paperwork and other formalities- This is another important parameter which needs to be given adequate consideration while selecting health insurance plan. Insurance companies which involve substantial amount of paperwork and a complicated process of signing up should in all practical possibilities be avoided.

List of Exclusions- Common exclusions are pre-existing medical conditions, or ailments pertaining to internal and complicated organs. Before finalizing on health insurance product, an Australian citizen should have a precise understanding of what all ailments do not stand to be covered by the policy, he intends to purchase.

Broadly speaking, these are some of the key criteria or parameters which should be assessed at the time of selecting a health insurance product, available in Australia….

Continued

An important part of your financial planning, personal well being and secure future is getting  health insurance. There are lot of products and offers floated by financial institutions in Australia that provide health insurance options according to varied requirements of the Australians. But before getting to look for the available deals and choosing the best one, you should be clear if you really require a health insurance or why do you require a health insurance.

Health Services: If you avail of services such as gymnasiums, massage therapy etc., then getting  health insurance will be beneficial for you as most of the health insurance deals offered by Australian financial institutions provide discounts on these services. You can get interesting offers at various health clubs with the health insurance policies.

Requirement of Health Expenditure: If you foresee substantial spending on medical grounds, getting health insurance is definitely required. Such medical treatments can be expensive at times. Health insurance will help you in obtaining large amount of money in emergency situations. The reasons can be chronic health problems, regular medical attention or preempted major expenditure such as surgery etc.

Tax Benefits: Australian government provides income tax waivers on health insurance policies so it can help you in your tax planning as well.

Hospital Facilities: Additional hospital facilities are also provided to the health insurance policy holders like preferred appointments, quick admissions etc.

Safety of Family: If you want to ensure safety and financial surety for health concerns of yourself and your family, health insurance family is must for you. By getting a health insurance, you will definitely earn peace of mind as you will be assured of handling any unforeseen health concerns or accidents.

These are simple criterion that will let you decide on the requirement of a health insurance. You can easily go ahead and do some research on health insurance offers available in Australia and choose the best one for yourself.

Conclusion

These days, the rising health care expenses are becoming a gigantic problem as they are sucking your savings out. Spending some money in getting a good health insurance plan makes sense.  Health insurance is a form of insurance that pays for your medical expenses. In other terms, it is an insurance that pays for all or part of an individual’s health care expenses. In general, these health care expenses cover doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery, tests, and other treatments and health care services.

In Australia, there are many types of health insurance plans available like: individual plans and government health plans such as Medicare. Surprisingly, there is almost no type of group insurance, and almost no employer sponsorship plans for health insurance in Australia. It’s because the Australian health insurance system is about government, private insurers and consumers only, employers don’t have any role to play here.

Private insurance in Australia is relatively cheap and you can find some really great deals to suit your pocket. So, around 50 percent of Australians have some form of private health insurance. As part of the 1999 reform, any Australian whose age is 30 years or less goes for any private insurance will pay a lower premium throughout his lifetime than those who get insured later in life.

People with severe illness like Cancer may have specific concerns, so they should check coverage for services outside of the plan’s list of participating providers. Health insurance coverage cannot be cancelled for health reasons.
Insurance policy may not take effect immediately upon signing up for a policy. In some cases a waiting period exists, so health care services received during this period are not covered. There is no such thing as a perfect health care plan, you need to be smart and wise enough to decide the best and the cheapest deal available to cover all your health insurance needs.