When It Matters Most: The Value of Pedal Power Insurance

Jill’s recent experience has emphasised the value of Pedal Power’s cycling insurance, included with your membership, even if you also have private health insurance. 

In March 2025, Jill was cycling with a group of friends when her handlebars clipped a protruding pole and sent her crashing to the pavement.  The ambulance eventually came and took her to hospital, which was covered by her private health insurance, and she was admitted as a public patient.  The next morning she was operated on for a complex hip fracture – a long pin and 3 cross screws from the hip to the knee.  No out-of-pocket expenses, so no need to claim on her Pedal Power insurance.  However, that was only the beginning of her recovery.   

Once she left hospital 2 weeks later, she required multiple visits to a private physio – her referral to the public physio took a couple of months to deliver an appointment and then only provided a limited number of appointments.  She also required a lot of remedial massage over the following year, particularly to free up her knee so that it could bend again, and hydrotherapy to get her exercising without weight bearing.  While private health insurance made a small contribution to some of these services, most of the costs were not covered.  This is where Pedal Power’s insurance proved particularly useful.  It covered the out-of-pocket expenses between the billed amounts and the small private health insurance rebates. 

Several months later, our member was having increasing levels of discomfort in the hip – it turned out that the top screw had moved and was jabbing into soft tissue.  She had private surgery to get it fixed.  While Pedal Power insurance is prevented by law from covering any Medicare items, there were some non-Medicare items it could and did cover: the excess charge over and above the private health rebate for hospital accommodation; the non-Medicare dissolving stitches used by the surgeon; and the cost of the assistant surgeon (which is required but not covered by Medicare). 

In addition to all these medical costs, Pedal Power’s insurance covered the cost of replacing items of clothing that had to be cut off her when she got to the hospital and the cost of other items such as rehab walking poles, compression stockings and slip-on shoes that she required as a result of her accident and last but not least a replacement helmet! 

All in all, she received over $5,000 for all these out-of-pocket medical and other expenses incurred over the course of the year following her accident.