Private hospital cover in Australia when I'm mostly healthy — is it tax maths or actual care? Health

They're two separate levers and conflating them is the most common mistake in this conversation. The Medicare Levy Surcharge applies above an income threshold, and only eligible hospital cover avoids it — extras-only policies don't count for that at all. Lifetime Health Cover loading is the age one: 2% added to hospital premiums for each year after 31 that you go without, capped at 70%, and removed after ten continuous years of cover. You can be below the surcharge threshold and still be accruing loading.

What made it worth it for me had nothing to do with tax: an elective knee procedure that would have meant a long wait in the public system. With cover I chose the timing and the surgeon. If nothing on that list applies to you, you're buying an option rather than care, and options have a price you should be able to state.

Held a cheap policy for four years purely to dodge the surcharge, never used it once, and eventually worked out the premiums were close to what the surcharge would have cost me anyway. If tax avoidance is your only reason, do the arithmetic with your actual numbers instead of assuming avoidance always wins.

Waiting periods are the thing to plan around. If you're taking cover because you expect to use it soon, read the pre-existing condition waiting period before you sign rather than at the point of claiming.

Ambulance cover varies by state and catches people out constantly. Cheap to add, expensive to discover you didn't have it.

Anything that turns on your income and household situation is worth a conversation with an actual adviser. The general shape of the rules is public; how it lands for you specifically isn't something a forum can tell you.