Cost of gastric sleeve without insurance

if your not already in a health fund or you need to change your cover to cover you for something (hospital wise) it is ALWAYS a 12 month wait. It's deemed to be a pre-existing condition. UNLESS you can medically prove its not.... ie you fall down and break a leg! If you need to upgrade to covr gastic sleeve - "obesity" is considered pre-existing.

I used to work for a PHI - this is how they work.

HCF is a 12 month wait

Just wanted to ask ......Is it true that you only wait one year for surgery if you join a health fund ...... and what health fund does this ..... is it HCF ,NIB ....

Thanks applesauce - Are you saying I should not have ordered my little blue pill from the internet!!! No wonder it did not work lol
Cheers

Most sections of this forum are open to anyody to read, it helps encourage in newbies to feel comofrtable here before joining. There are bots which are autemotied programs, not sure I used the right words there hehehe that troll over the internet and harvest, as in collect email addresses then the person who sent it either uses it or sells them on to peole like the little blue pill makers or it seems these days the nigerian fraud community. The later seem to target these type of things as in forums hoping for a symptathetic ear to try and get you to give them money because of course somebody died and left them 20 million dollars they need to smuggle out of the country heheeh

applesauce

Thanks applesauce. I should have guessed you would have known. By the way, nothing to do with sleeves, when you put someones email on the site, you talk about avoiding a "bot" which I think has someing to do with spam. Could you please explain...thanks heaps

private health insurance. HBF is one of them.

applesauce

Hey guys, whats a PHI

I think that all private funds are different and class pre-existing differently as well. I have to deal with private health funds everyday with work and sometimes I just shake my head! I have to tell patients to call their fund to find out what their fund offers/not offers. The only thing I can suggest is GET IT IN WRITING!

It is a long time since it happend to me I had d&c with a look and see done a lot of years ago mind you now and I paid out of pocket for it as my health insurance had not kicked in yet. Idiot surgeon perferated my small intestine and nearly killed me so and over night stay turned into 2 weeks and major surgery. I was not covered for the first night and the minor theatre fee part of the what turned into a major theatre fee.

It was not classed as pre existing tho I had a huge fight as he removed my apendix at the same time and they came back inflamed so they tried to hit me up for that as pre existing. they tho said their was no medical history on record that told me that and paid. So yes sticking a lapascop though somebodies small intestine is a risk of the surgery but not a pre existing condition. Nor is not stapling up the stomach correctly a pre existing condition. Somebody else checked all this out about 12 months ago from memory as well. BUT yes do confirm all this before surgery.

applesauce

really, have to check all this out...im with hcf..

applesauce wrote:

You are 100% covered for ANY and ALL complications of the surgery including a leak even if you have had your hospital cover for only 1 week. It is NOT a pre existing condition. I checked all this out. Quiet a number of surgeons refuse to operate on patient who are doing it out of their own pocket but once you explain you have taken out private health cover they are usually more than happy to do you. they are fearful of a leak and you ending up not thousands but hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt if you end up in ICU for months. this could cost people their homes.

Take out insurance before surgery no matter what and be covered for the unexpected IMMEDIATELY not waiting periods unlike the actual surgery which has a waiting period of 12 months. You will not be coverd for your surgery or expected stay in hospital but anything after that you will be covered for. so yu stay goes from 4 days to 40 days you are covered for 36 days and all that goes on during that time.

applesauce

I am very certain this is somewhat incorrect. It actually only applies if you have been discharged and then go home and come back with a problem. Then it is not considered a pre existing problem. Whilst you are an inpatient, if your leak happens in hospital BEFORE DISCHARGE or any other complication that extends your stay or lands you in ICU, you are not covered.

You are 100% covered for ANY and ALL complications of the surgery including a leak even if you have had your hospital cover for only 1 week. It is NOT a pre existing condition. I checked all this out. Quiet a number of surgeons refuse to operate on patient who are doing it out of their own pocket but once you explain you have taken out private health cover they are usually more than happy to do you. they are fearful of a leak and you ending up not thousands but hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt if you end up in ICU for months. this could cost people their homes.

Take out insurance before surgery no matter what and be covered for the unexpected IMMEDIATELY not waiting periods unlike the actual surgery which has a waiting period of 12 months. You will not be coverd for your surgery or expected stay in hospital but anything after that you will be covered for. so yu stay goes from 4 days to 40 days you are covered for 36 days and all that goes on during that time.

applesauce

And it doesn't just apply to medical stuff from the operation - it is all medical expenses (and dental) of any kind during the year, so is something we should all be doing. It certainly adds up!

you can claim 20% OVER $1500 on combined medical expenses on tax when you do your tax return.

If you are planning to do it this year, keep every single pharmacy receipt as this all adds twoards it. So anything like panadol or scripts not related to the surgery can be included. Check the ATO website for further info. That way you'll get to your $1500 quicker if you buy stuff from pharamcy. Even no prescription stuff counts like bandages, any medicine that is non prescription and issued by a pharmacist. I am not sure if it includes optifast but if I am in jail next year, then you know it doesn't!! I couldn't get a staright answer from tax department. Essentially it's a pharmacy item prescribed by a doctor for 3 weeks I did it so technically it is inculded, but if not prescribed by doctor then no. So the weeks I did optifast that I didn't have to, they didn't count.

I have PHI, even if i had a leak, or something went wrong, am still covered even tho it hasnt been a year? Or doesnt that count cause it a complication from 'A" surgery?
I do realise that if god forbid, something went wrong that i realise it would be quite a costly experience....
I am and like everyone else just impatient, and hate waiting....thnks

I know I have said this in other threads but better to be safe than sorry. Please please anybody paying for this without insurance DO take out insurance before the surgery. I know it will not cover you for the actual surgery but it WILL cover you if you have a leak. That is serous money months in ICU in some cases. 1 or 2 months of private health cover for just over $100 is the best insurance policy you will ever take out.
Just drop it 6 weeks after surgery. but do it, just do it.

applesauce

I had mine in Sydney and all up it was around $20,000 (I had PHI and I paid approx $7,500 the rest was covered) I was in from Monday to Fri (4 nights 5 days) and I had a specialist anethatist (costs a bit more) because I have many allergies to commonly used drugs. All up I'm guessing it was the best money Ive ever spent!

Any quotes from canberra??

If you paid for it all, can u then calim much back from medicare? And you can also claim something back from tax too, from memory?

I was just wondering as I was gonna put it on the mortage loan..well happy wife, happy life,(in this case house) lol....
shaz

In qld I have been quoted $20 000 for all.

I have PHI so my op was paid for by them, but in total it came to just over $15 000.

That includes everything - room cost, medicine, theatre fees etc.

Thats about the same as it is in Sydney too. About $16k from my doctor.

Hello guys,
For those wanting to know how much it costs in Perth WA without health insurance, for the gastric sleeve I have a quote of $15,000 - $17,000