We pulled out of health insurance.
If you work it out the premium is based on the amount they expect to pay out (an average) plus a healthy profit margin. They assume you will pay more in than you get out. (if you are an averge healthy person)
If you dont have private insurance you can still go private, and medicare will still pay its normal rates (you will have a gap to pay)
Most of the really serious stuff is handeled by the public sector anyway. You can choose to have a baby in a private hospital, but if there are complications you will end up at the Womens and Childrens regardless.
In our case we had one child with private health in a private hospital and it cost us a small fortune in gaps. The second was public, cost us nothing, and the service was just as good (but I didnt get free meals)
My wife had to have a third knee reconstruction, so we saw the top guy in Adelaide (paid to go private due to her complications), had the opp inside 2 weeks and it cost us very little after medicare covered their component (around 2K from memory and much less than a years payments)
I would consider private if they didnt have gaps (I figure thats why i pay my premium) and gave me the choice to see who I like (not a minimul group of budget doctors and hospitals)