All the notes here are in the context of Australia. See Medicare, Australia’s public healthcare system. It already covers doctor visits and a bunch of other things. The purpose of getting private health insurance is to get access to specific services and doctors not publicly funded by the government. See Medicare vs. Private health insurance.
Some basic things to know:
- Anyone can buy private health insurance.
- When you buy insurance, there are some services you can’t immediately use. There may be a waiting period before you can get coverage for those services (this prevents people from exploiting insurance).
- The insurer, by law, cannot charge someone extra for being high risk. They can, however, extend your waiting period for pre-existing illnesses.