Private health insurance with hospital cover allows you to be treated in a private hospital. Latrobe will cover your hospital costs and either some or all of any medical costs not covered by Medicare.

Depending on the hospital cover you take out, cover will include some or all of:

• hospital accommodation costs (including meals)
• theatre costs

You may be charged with an excess fee when you make your claim. This fee varies depending on your particular health insurance plan. 

You are not covered for any non-medically necessary procedures. For example, you are not covered for cosmetic surgery. However, you are covered for plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, or any elective surgery that your doctor and Medicare deem to be medically necessary

Restrictions

Restrictions are services that a plan partly covers.

For example, if your policy restricts hip replacement:

• you’re covered as a private patient in a public hospital
• you’re partly covered as a private patient in a private hospital — this means your health insurer will only pay a small part of your hospital accommodation fees and you’ll have to pay for all other costs

Exclusions

Exclusions are services that a policy doesn’t cover. This means your health insurer will not pay for any of the costs of the service.

For example, some policies don’t cover services like:

• heart surgery
• knee and hip replacements
• cataract surgery
• pregnancy and birth-related services