Southern Cross claims examples:
Do you even need health insurance?
❚ Breast cancer surgery: $6400-$17,800
❚ Endometriosis surgery: $6900-$18,900
❚ Knee replacement: $22,200-$30,000
❚ Hip replacement: $20,700-$27,800
❚ Varicose veins: $7000-$9800
Many people describe health insurance as a ‘‘luxury’’, though for some, cancelling their cover also means cancelling their children’s cover too.
Everyone can get treatment through the state healthcare system, even if that can mean enduring lengthy waiting lists.
For some, health insurance is affordable only until they stop work, or as one reader put it: ‘‘Come retirement when the need for health care increases, the premiums escalate beyond what is possible for many.
‘‘I retire soon and am keeping my Kiwisaver for any medical requirements,’’ said another Stuff reader. ‘‘I did have subsidised health insurance through my employer but could not afford to pay the premiums for the 65+ age group on a pension.’’
Another cited the story of his parents: ‘‘Premiums became so stupidly inflated by the time they reached their mid-sixties (circa 2000) that they simply cancelled their health insurance and paid for the operations themselves when not acute enough to warrant emergency department admission. My Mum’s broken hip and ankle plus her pacemaker were acute enough to avoid any public hospital waiting lists, my Dad’s prostate (2x) ops and heart bypass came out of savings. All up Dad (who died at 78) broke even, we think, while Mum’s well ahead (and still kicking at 85).’’
So, he said: ‘‘My wife and I cottoned on and canned private health insurance in our 30s (when we personally experienced the complete lack of mental health condition cover), backing ourselves to be disciplined enough to save (and build) the premiums in order to have a war fund when we need it.’’
But having insurance is not about paying for smaller claims that can be covered from savings. It’s about covering catastrophically expensive treatments.
One reader put it like this: ‘‘Had Southern Cross insurance for four years, then contracted cancer . . . So far SC has payed out in excess of $150,000, and I haven’t had to pay a cent.’’