Don't get me started on Health Insurance...

I finally signed up a couple years ago, after several years of earning over the amount that has you paying extra Medicare in your tax (I figured that I was spending this much money anyway, why not use it for private health insurance).
The next tax/fiscal year, my hours at work dropped back, and I didn't earn enough to be charged the extra Medicare levy anyway. So now I'm still paying extra money, but wouldn't have needed anymore (I haven't earnt enough since then either).

But that's not the complaint.
The problem is that after 2-3 years of paying Health Insurance premiums without any claims, the one time I need to rely on it (appendix operation last April), they refused to cover it because of a technicality - their fine-print said that I had to be admitted BEFORE tests were done for those tests to be covered.... but the hospital wasn't going to admit until after the test results said I had to have surgery.
Surely if tests done as part of the process to have surgery (and a subsequent admittance to a Private Hospital), it all should be covered.
At least, that's what a normal person would think, who had "hospital cover" in their policy, without scrutinising every tiny detail of their policy.

And for the record, if an admitting Private Hospital Emergency Ward sees the words "optional exclusions" on your policy (which most people have, especially young people who are less likely to cover things that affect the elderly), they can't guarantee if you are covered for that Private Hospital stay when entering in your policy details, because they don't know what your optional exclusions are... leaving you with a choice of being transferred to a public hospital, or run the risk/fear of being charged thousands - if you don't have the time to check with your insurer (like, after hours) to see if you are going to be paying anything for that stay/surgery.
It's a rare situation, but one that obviously can happen if you are new to Private Health Insurance, and have to go to a Private Hospital Emergency Ward.
(obviously if it was something elective, you'd have the time to find out beforehand, and not have a problem... but if it is an emergency, go to a Public Emergency Ward first just in case, then everything is covered by Medicare)
Bunch o' scammers.