Thinking of doing some travel and suspending your private health insurance? Cancelling your private hospital cover may have a detrimental effect on your refund at tax time.

If you have earned over the threshold amount, ($90,000 for singles $180,000 for families) and suspend your policy whilst you travel overseas, you won’t have adequate private hospital cover for that period.

Having inadequate private hospital cover means that you may be liable for the Medicare levy surcharge for the number of days you weren’t covered.

Depending on your income level it could be more effective to pay the premiums and not suspend the policy in order to avoid the surcharge.

If you need help deciding whether suspending your private health insurance is right for you give us a call on 9335 5211.

Author: Adrian Wardlaw
Email: adrian@faj.com.au