By Jessica Wilson

You may be fit and strong right now, but there’s no telling if your health would suddenly falter because of some sickness or accident. If you haven’t bothered to get yourself health coverage because you have more immediate needs to take care of or some other excuse, you might have a difficult time paying for your medical bills once you’ve gotten ill, injured or disabled. Thus, you should consider obtaining health coverage. However, you might want to know first some of the benefits that you can get by planning for your future health needs.

What Are Some of the Benefits That Health Coverage Can Give You?

As it may be your first time to get yourself health coverage, you may find yourself confused as to why you would even need to purchase it, especially if you’re confident enough that you can pay for every single cent of anything that has to do with your health. However, the reality is that you might end up going broke and in deep debt if you don’t have any health coverage at all. To convince you to obtain it while you’re still young and healthy, here are some of the benefits:

1. Obtaining health coverage lowers the hospital bills that you have to pay compared to when you don’t have it

Having yourself admitted to a hospital might sound like the very last thing that you’d want to happen to you. But once you’ve contracted some sickness or received injuries as a result of an accident, you’ll have to go to a hospital and seek proper medical treatment there instead of putting it off and self-medicating at home.

• If you’ve gotten involved in an accident and there aren’t any nearby private hospitals for emergency medical services to bring you there, they’ll usually drive you to the closest public hospital. However, you might still get forced to wait, which can decrease your chances of survival. The same applies if you’ve gotten seriously ill, but the nearest private hospital is too far from your place compared to a public one that’s only minutes away.

• When you have health coverage, you can easily get yourself admitted to a private hospital from the get-go or transferred from a public to a private one with ease.

• With health coverage, you can even choose a doctor who you feel will give you the best possible care after being admitted or transferred to a private hospital compared to not getting yourself one in a public hospital would simply assign to you a doctor that you might not be fond of at all.

1. Obtaining health coverage can let you buy your prescription medicines for less than what you would’ve paid if you don’t have one

You might say right now that you’ve saved up more than enough money to get yourself out of a hospital without incurring any debt to the said institution. However, the doctor who treated your sickness or injuries might prescribe you some medicines to help you heal that can get very expensive.

• In Australia, the cost of prescription medications is four times more than its current global average price. That alone should be reason enough for you to take out health coverage as soon as you can.

• But before heading over to a pharmacy or commercial drugstore to buy the medicines that your doctor prescribed to you, you should check your health cover’s formulary – or drug list – first so that you can find out which ones you can buy with it and which ones to pay out of your pocket.

Obtaining health coverage lets you take advantage of preventive health services for free

As cliché as this may sound, the saying that goes “prevention is better than cure” very much applies to your health.

• Even if you don’t get sick or injured anytime soon, you’ll still want to have your health protected by getting preventive services like screenings or vaccinations so that you can have a long and healthy life.

• By taking out health coverage, you can get access to various screenings and vaccinations that you’re allowed to have without having to pay for any of them at all.

According to a survey put out by Roy Morgan Research last 2013, more than nine million Australians aged 14 and above don’t have any health insurance at all. If you’re currently one of those Aussies without health coverage, you might regret your decision if ever you succumb to some sickness or become injured after getting involved in an accident. Thus, you should consider getting health coverage, especially as you have the above-listed benefits that you can get if you let it help you with all your future health needs. As you might try it for yourself first, you can consider getting a singles health insurance and then upgrade your health insurance from there.

Jessica Wilson

Jessica is a professional health expert who works for some major health industry giants. She currently writes for Membersown and is dedicated to helping people learn more about health related topics along the journey. When she's not a health advocate, she enjoys some down time traveling or talking with family.