Private health cover?

[ExhaustedCarer]

Hi all,

Background: Supporting my alcoholic brother and MI mum. Brother on very low income & mum has few financial resources. Mum is in the wait for ACAT assessment and is engaged with older persons mental health service (yay!). Brother in and out of public alcohol treatment. 

question: a professional mentioned to me getting private health insurance for my brother recently. He is in 40s and has long history of alcoholism, so he wouldn’t exactly be the first pick for a private health insurance company (maybe I’m wrong?). Professional said if I use the word “crisis” it can mean he wouldn’t have to wait and could get private treatment somewhere more quickly? I’m very unfamiliar with private health so all the info didn’t sink in tbh. But has anyone got good experiences getting private health insurance for complex cases and expediting treatment options? 

[Former-Member]

Hey there @ExhaustedCarer. Thank you so much for sharing ❤️ It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate. Hopefully we can find you some answers! 

I thought I'd tag some of our wonderful community guides who are carers. Their experiences are a little different, but I wonder if @Shaz51 or @maddison have any guidance on private health insurance?

I've also just done a quick search of the forums for "private health insurance" to see what came up. This is what I found.

On the Carers, family and friends homepage, you can search here if you need it in the future! 

 

 Big hugs,

TuxedoCat

[tyme]

From experience, when I was in 'crisis' @ExhaustedCarer , I didn't have to wait or use private health.

I HAD private health, but my treatment was through the public system. It was about connecting with the right services and being able to advocate for myself.

Hope that helps @ExhaustedCarer . But please know I'm not here to tell you whether to take or not take private health insurance.

Kindest, tyme

[Shaz51]

Hello @ExhaustedCarer ,

I am a carer for my mum

and my husband has MI

And I have physical problems 

And we have no private health cover , we have had no trouble getting treatment through the public system

I have found lots services which has helped us 

@tyme , @Former-Member 

[ExhaustedCarer]

Thanks so much all! Brother currently on wait list for a community-based rehab. Think it’s only a few weeks away- but I’ve got a forensic clean organised at mum’s in a week and that’s where my brother is staying. It’s just dawned on my in last few days, perhaps if we had private insurance we could get him in somewhere ASAP. In any case he has been very decently served by the public system. He uses ambulances frequently so ambulance cover would probably make sense. Thanks all- so much knowledge in this space 🙂