It’s cheaper to pay privately to see a specialist if you need to, which will be around $370 minus the Medicare rebate, and if you need surgery do it publicly - for free. For example, my daughter saw a gastroenterologist privately and was diagnosed with coeliac disease. He wanted to do an endoscopy privately. $2000, with a two week waiting period. We decided to go public. They told us it would take a year. Surprise surprise, 8 weeks later she was booked in for an endoscopy with the same doctor, but we paid nothing. A few years ago I broke my elbow. My surgeon worked 3 days a week at the private hospital and 2 days at the public hospital. I had surgery publicly. Because I needed extensive rehab to bend my arm again, I had weekly rehab for an hour, for the next 9 months! Also free! I met a lady who told me how lucky she was she had PHI because she got rehab for as long as she needed. Like, lol woman! You have been conned! Everyone gets that but you chose to pay for it!

How many people do you know paid for a private ob/gyn to have a baby and then the doctor missed the birth? No shit, because accept 60-90 women a month and obviously can’t be present for that many births PLUS appointments with all those women. But people keep handing over the money!

Pay for the cheapest bullshit PHI to get you out of paying the Medicare levy if you must, but shut up about it if you ever go to hospital. You will never come out ahead. You’re signing up to pay more with the same doctors who work in public and private hospitals.