Chapter 6 (PHI) Flashcards
Private health insurance
Private health insurance is a type of insurance where members pay a small amount of fee monthly to cover the costs of health related services not covered by Medicare.
List insectives
Medicare levy surcharge
The private health insurance rebate
Lifetime health cover:
Medicare levy surcharge
By imposing it would be expected that high income earners will decide to take out private health insurance because they would be granted the extra benefits of PHI and not have to pay much more than they are paying through MLS (tax).
The private health insurance rebate
It is when the government providesmany PI Australian holders a rebate (a partial refund ) to help recover the costs of the premium .The rebate enables Australians to be able to afford private health insurance.
Lifetime health cover:
People who take up private insurance after the
age of 31 pay an extra 2 per cent on their premiums for every year they are over the age of 30. This Encourage people to take out private healh insurance earlier in life, and to maintain their cover over their lifetime.
Advantages
- Enables access to private hospital care which can shorten waiting times
- Choice of doctor while in public or private hospital
- Shorter waiting times for some medical procedures such as elective surgery
Disadvantages
Costly in terms of the premiums that have to be paid
Sometimes there is a ‘gap’, which means that the insurance doesn’t cover the whole fee and the individual must pay the difference
Qualifying periods apply for some conditions (e.g. pregnancy)
Differences between Medicare and private health insurance
Medicare covers all Australian citizens and permanent residents whereas private health insurance is optional.
• For hospital services, peoplecannot choose their own doctor under Medicare but can with private health insurance.
• For elective surgery, waiting lists are generally shorter under private health insurance than under Medicare.
Services covererd
Hospital cover in which will cover all or some of the extra costs associated with a private hospital.
As well as private hospital cover, people can receive cover for general treatment to pay for services provided by dentists, physiotherapists and chiropractors, which are generally not covered by Medicare
gap
The ‘gap’ is the co-payment that an individual must pay if the cost of a service is above what Medicare and their private health insurance policy will pay.
