Forum Discussion
Public or Private (please help!!)
After diagnosis of High Grade DCIS with Mastectomy required. My husband and I are both on the aged pension, and have struggled to maintain private health insurance. I live in a rural area which has n...
Hi @maddie
Being in the same boat as you (western Vic Rural, pensioner, but have paid private cover for many years) my high grade extensive DCIS required a very quick mastectomy. I could go Regional for the mastectomy and later found I could have had some reconstruction but my choice of a DIEP would have meant Melbourne.
The surgeon waived all fees for going private but I was out of pocket for the anesthetic, the usual gap at the hospital and some smaller costs.
A Melbourne DIEP would have been around $20k out of pocket with using my private cover, though. That was out of the question.
If you prefer a private room and the comfort that provides then go that way as i did. I prefer to see the same specialist each visit.
If the public hospital is a teaching hospital the hospital can over-ride the surgeon and you could have students (with the surgeon supervising) doing the surgery on the day.
Hope this helps. All the best.
Anne
Being in the same boat as you (western Vic Rural, pensioner, but have paid private cover for many years) my high grade extensive DCIS required a very quick mastectomy. I could go Regional for the mastectomy and later found I could have had some reconstruction but my choice of a DIEP would have meant Melbourne.
The surgeon waived all fees for going private but I was out of pocket for the anesthetic, the usual gap at the hospital and some smaller costs.
A Melbourne DIEP would have been around $20k out of pocket with using my private cover, though. That was out of the question.
If you prefer a private room and the comfort that provides then go that way as i did. I prefer to see the same specialist each visit.
If the public hospital is a teaching hospital the hospital can over-ride the surgeon and you could have students (with the surgeon supervising) doing the surgery on the day.
Hope this helps. All the best.
Anne