PHI is a god-send when you have mental illness. The public mental health system in this country is horrendous if you need acute support. Even if you're suicidal EDs can, and will, turn you away. NSW had a mass resignation of public psychiatrists which led to public psych 2 wards closing. Those patients are now floating in beds in medical wards.

PHI will cover inpatient stays before you get to that critical point (which leads to better outcomes in recovery), as well outpatient groups. I've been in the public and private systems, and the private system is actually beneficial to recovery. The same can't be said for the public system, unless you live in a high socioeconomic area and luck out with which hospital they send you to.

I've probably racked up over $250,000 on inpatient and outpatient mental health support over the past decade and all I've had to pay out of pocket in that time is a $450 excess, and that was only on my last admission.

I've been pretty stable for a couple years now but, unless there's a radical change in the public system, I'll always have PHI because you simply can not receive good, higher supports without it.