Generation Y Speaks Blog
by Clinton Hodgkins
AELC External & Community Relations Manager
Started work at 16 through food & hospitality, cabinet making, mining, sales and then management at Harvey Norman working at 5 different stores in Australia and NZ. Clint is a part-time professional drummer, homeowner and engaged with a child.
| Health Insurance |
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I have had health insurance for at least 5 years now, and probably have paid out around $11- $12000 for top health cover and extras. In that time I only claimed a maximum of $3000, but the monthly payments just kept on going. Over the past 6 months, our finances have been getting tighter and tighter so I did my full year budget that included everything, from car services to pet expenses, and not too surprisingly I discovered I was falling short about $4000 for the year. I had to start thinking what could I do to get my budget back on track. I looked over many options but the one which I was unsure about was my health insurance. I researched many different health funds but it seemed that for every saving you made there were insufficient benefits paid. There were no plain English explanations of what you could or couldn’t claim, it was just a major headache. I asked what my colleagues thought of health insurance and I was told by one that they had completely dropped it all together 2 years ago. This got me thinking, could I do this and save the expense all together. Mine and my partners wage was under the threshold for paying the extra 1% Medicare levy so that wasn’t going to be an issue. I looked at what I had used my health insurance for; we used the public system for the pregnancy and birth of my daughter as the extra payments for private care was too expensive. We had great service and a good experience in the public system. We also had trouble getting the health insurance to pay a hospital bill from the year before and ended up paying for it ourselves. After looking at my extras and the benefits from them for the current year, I have to say that I have used my extras more than I ever have. This included visits to the Dentist, Podiatrist and Psychologists totalling to about $800 in claims. When I did the maths it worked out to be that I was paying the same amount for that years cover as the claims I have made. I have completely stopped my private health Insurance now and I’m one step closer to getting my budget back on track. I would love to hear what others have done in this situation. Even if I was paying the extra 1% levy I would still use the public system unless I was earning $150,000+.                       |