Today I discovered I haven't had health insurance for 2 years.

I'm not even sure how that happened. Something to do with choosing the very cheapest health insurer I could find. Naturally enough this insurer lacked the business acumen or customer service or plain old common sense to contact me once my bank account details changed & they couldn't withdraw payment anymore. Two years ago. No bills, no payments, no health insurance.

In actual fact, I did discover the discrepancy when I was faced with a hospital visit some months back, but I had other things on my mind. And then my insurer actually sent me an ad -- to my home address, the one they kept not sending bills to -- asking me to 'come back'. So I ticked the box, 'yes, I'd like to come back' & waited. Nothing happened. (Again, cheap insurer, not very proactive about the money thing.) So I emailed. Nothing happened. And I emailed again and TODAY they rang & said 'we left you several messages' (I'm not sure where, probably on the wall outside their building) & how would you like to pay today.

Well, for a start, I'm not in the mood to pay today and & I'm not sure you guys are really my best bet. AND you're not the best bargain insurer anymore either, so.... stick it, really.

Sooo, I am now looking for Australia's cheapest health insurance (bare minimum hospital cover to keep my taxes down). Anyone got a lead?

The good news is that Concord Hospital took exceptional care of me while I was there some months back, giving me a bed, several meals, on-call nursing staff all night (who kept taking my damn blood pressure), strong painkillers, and -- from what I can tell -- a very good, intelligent, pro-active surgical team. All for free. Because I had no health insurance. What does that tell you, eh?

'Course, I'm paying for it now...

Hospital visits are like childhood: you expect them to exist whole somewhere, like a bubble in time. You expect you'll be able to find your way back there someday & it'll all be the same. You'll be in Bed 3, Mrs Kim will be in 1 (because it's closest to the bathroom & she needs a frame to walk) with her name in tight scrawl along the ( whiteboard above her head. )