Private health insurance is a complex beast. This exhaustive infographic from The Conversation explains all the important facts; from an overview of the major players to the annual cost of different policies and an explanation of means-tested rebates.
[Via The Conversation]
Lifehacker’s Loaded column looks at better ways to manage (and stop worrying about) your money.
Comments
3 responses to “A Snapshot Of Private Health Insurance In Australia [Infographic]”
Lifetime Health Cover is the biggest farce in our healthcare system right now. Because someone is poor when they’re 30, they’re forced to pay more when they’re older. I understand *why* they’re doing it, they want more people on private health care earlier in life, instead of waiting until they’re old and needing to rely on private health care. Doesn’t make it fair that the government forces people like this.
I’d like to see money stop being wasted on private health insurance. Imagine if everyone who was paying for private health insurance right now, instead put that money to a central government fund. All of a sudden you could provide great level of health care to the entire country, instead of just providing dividends to health fund shareholders.
That makes a lot of sense, except that governments are pretty bad at managing money.
Knowing quite a great deal about the private health system, I tend to agree with you. But we must also understand why health costs are going up, so we can innovate to reduce this burden. Sick people live longer and prolonging their life costs a lot of money. And then there are all the tests doctors do to cover their backsides from being sued.
A full coverage government system that is community rated, but still requires a co-payment to access gets my vote. Alas, the whole GP co-payment thing was shot down despite protecting the vulnerable.
If people want a free system, then it’s not going to happen and we will be stuck with the current private system for eternity.