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When it comes to deciding between private and public healthcare insurance, there are many good benefits of taking out private health insurance over public that you may or may not know about. Here’s a look at the many benefits and why you should consider taking out private healthcare insurance. One great example of where private health insurance is provided for citizens is in Australia with their government and private health insurance firms.
Private Health Insurance Coverage
The overall benefit of taking out private health insurance is how flexible it is when it comes to making decisions and how easy it is to seek help. This allows you to feel assured that there will always be medical assistance available to you. You also have many more choices about where you receive healthcare. Under some healthcare insurance policies, there will be a set list of specific hospitals that will be able to cover your visit and any procedures, but otherwise it still gives you quite a bit of flexibility. Other basic benefits of selecting private health insurance over public includes:
- Unrestricted visiting hours
- Better personal care
- Talking one-on-one with a physician in private
- No long waiting periods to speak with a physician
- Meet with the same physician throughout treatment care
- Coverage includes a specialist claim team for specific treatments
Let’s take a look at one of the continents that is taking the lead in providing good private healthcare insurance for its citizens. In Australia, private health insurance coverage lists individuals and groups into different categories depending if they are one or more adults, a small or large family, or a single child (dependent who is unmarried and under 18 years of age).
The many benefits of Private Insurance in Australia
Even if Australian citizens decide to take out public insurance, some plans are flexible enough to include benefits of both private and public plans. For example, with a Medicare plan, you do have the option to be treated as a public patient even if you have private insurance, but there are many different types of criteria that it does not cover. Medicare will not cover private patient hospital costs, any medical or hospital costs from oversea travels, procedures and services that are not necessary (such as cosmetic surgery), and ambulance services. Because a complete private insurance plan is so much more flexible, it allows you easy admittance to more hospitals and clinics.
There are two different types of coverage for private healthcare insurance in Australia: ancillary and hospital cover. Ancillary cover includes what is considered the essentials or extras of medical and complementary treatments:
- Optical
- Dental
- Podiatry
- Physiotherapy
- Osteopathy
- Chiropractic
For hospital cover, it will allow you to select which hospital (public or private), doctor, and consultant you wish to visit. It also includes any accommodation fees and can help cover any charges from work down by a surgeon or anesthetist. There might be some out-of-pocket expenses that private insurance cannot cover such as some pharmaceutical medicine charges or all of the visit and/or procedure costs; however, for public insurance, there are even more out-of-pocket expenses that it does not cover for patients including:
- Hearing aids
- Glasses and contact lenses
- Assisted living and nursing homes
Additional benefits with Private Healthcare Insurance
Besides the many benefits patients receive at hospitals and clinics with their private health insurance, these firms can provide additional benefits outside of the hospital as well. Services include easy access to your plan online so that you can make any changes to your policy such as updating your information or adding someone to your plan if you have children. Website sources make it easy to understand what your policy covers and what it does not cover by giving you quotes for individual health services.
Now that you know more about the benefits of private healthcare insurance coverage, what are your thoughts on it?