Private health care

[anthonyd]

savage,

Fair enough - but what if it had been a hit and run? No green slip involved there since the owner of the greenslip is not around.

There are also many other examples of accidents. What I was getting at was that the private care is not only for the sickly - even us able bodied persons can and do get injured, whether by others or by our own stupidity!

[rick_rine]

There are some good arguments here for private insurance and it makes you think but I have never had it . My wife just had a baby as most of you know and we could not complain about any service we had . Visits to midwives , obstatritians , an emergency C-Section at 3 A.M. Sunday morning , home visits by specialist nurses , the list goes on .
Cost us zilch , nothing , not one cent . Oh the G.P. visits cost us $15 each time , might as well say nothing .
Thank ourselves for our 1.5% additional tax for medicare . Great system .
Having said that , after reading some of these posts I can see advantages in private insurance .
Regards
Rick

[kiwigeo]

Not paying for health insurance and relying on invested money to pay your hospital bills is a big gamble. Ok if you're young but once youre past 40 I wouldnt even consider it....not worth the risk to have something major happen shortly after you invest the money. $20,000 sounds like a lot of money but spend a few years fighting cancer and you'll soon chew it up.

One problem with the private health system is that there is too much government meddling in the sector and private health insurance companies aren't allowed to function properly....it's the same old scenario where the govenment gets involved with any service supplied by the private sector (eg. most utilities in most states now), it ends up more expensive than it should be.

Private health insurance is not cheap but I want to be able to choose my sepcialist and hospital and I want things fixed straight away and I'm willing to pay for the privledge.

[Sturdee]

savage,

Fair enough - but what if it had been a hit and run? No green slip involved there since the owner of the greenslip is not around.

In the case of a hit and run accident the compulsory third party insurance scheme still covers it. Victims of hit and run are covered under the scheme.

So this example is irrelevant to private health insurance. In fact, at least in Victoria, your private health insurance does not cover motor vehicle accidents.


Peter.

[graemet]

Hospital insurance is a must but the extras are a ripoff. I've had over $25k in medical bills in the last year, the hospital stuff was fully covered by the fund, the doctors bills were mostly covered by the Medicare safety net. If I had the extras cover (@ $1200+ a year) I could have claimed another $16!!!!
Cheers
Graeme

[Auld Bassoon]

G'day Wongo!

Late last year I had a big scare - internal heamorraging, lots of blood loss, almost fell off my perch. The point I'm getting to is that without private hospital cover, that little episode would have cost me rather more than $12,000, plus numerous ongoing costs.

As it is, my personal costs, apart from the premiums, are less than $400. For less than $1,000 p.a. (just me), well. it's got my vote!

Cheers!

[Sturdee]

This is one of those subjects where there is no right or wrong answer as each have different expectations and needs.

We haven't had it since the original medibank came in. If it was good enough for the then Prime Minister and Treasurer it is good enough for me and a lot cheaper.

Like others my wife has diabetes, she is and has been under regular doctors and specialists care for well over 20 years. In that time she has had a number of urgent hospital treatments and in each case she has been looked after quickly and efficiently by the public hospitals concerned and was under the care of her own specialist who were attached to those public hospitals.

About 18 months ago she got regular eyebleeds and needed 4 eye operations at the Eye and Ear, a public hospital, and again she was looked after by expert surgeons, collegues of her referring specialist, who looked after her with care and understanding.

The only difference between privately insured patients and public patients at that hospital and in that field was that private patients had to pay substantial sums for the same care and treatment.

Personally I think the argument of choosing your own specialist as a private patient is a bit thin when the field is such that the only hospital suitable is a public hospital and the number of specialist in that field is such that there are only a small number, who you would not know personally in any case. Usually they are suggested to you by your GP, and he selects the chosen specialist from a list, often without knowing them personally.

Our doctor bulkbills us without any co-payment, my wife's specialists all bulkbills except for one that charges a $ 10 co- payment fee and ambulance is free with my health care card.

So for me Medicare is fine, but for others it may not be. But why pay for private insurance and then when you make a major claim you are out of pocket for thousands in meeting the shortfall.


Peter

[savage]

savage,

Fair enough - but what if it had been a hit and run? No green slip involved there since the owner of the greenslip is not around.

There are also many other examples of accidents. What I was getting at was that the private care is not only for the sickly - even us able bodied persons can and do get injured, whether by others or by our own stupidity!

Yes I see your point and agree, but a H&R MVA would be taken to the nearest emergency room and treated for injuries regardless. My family paid top premium for as long as I can remember, when I started work I joined and when I got married I expanded our membership to cover both of us, later 3 kids. We dropped out 4-5yrs ago as we felt ripped off and always ended up out of pocket with the "gap", now we only wait for elective surgery, I had a gall bladder removal 2yrs ago and paid for the first consultation and my bed in a private hospital (1) night the rest was taken care of by Medicare, so I was out of pocket the same as if I was in a fund!!..:confused: still have'nt worked that out, but not complaining!... everybodies case is different (medically speaking), and it all comes down to affordabillity, and preferance, but "private" is not what it used to be, single bed ward. Last time I went private in the fund I was in a multi bed ward, no different to public:confused: ....
savage(Eric)

[Robert WA]

Hip replacement in 2003. Private hospital, private room, my choice of surgeon, no waiting list, all the bells and whistles including physio. Cost to me $200.

I would not be without private health cover.

That exercise alone probably saved me at least 5 years of premiums.

Rob.

[savage]

Man! the system really is screwed up!....I got a headache I think I'll go to hospital instead of my G.P. and clog the system up a bit more, there in lies part of the problem, too many people go to the emergency room with minor ailments that could be remdied by the local G.P. freeing up emergency rooms for exactly that and take pressure off the congestion in at least that part of the system!

savage(Eric)

[boban]

I cant see why we just dont do away with private health funds altogether or just let them stand on their own feet. No 30% rebate, nothing. I think I pay enough tax to cover my hospital bills. If my taxes also pay for the less well off then that makes me feel even better.

Why should I be forced to pay for private cover. It stinks, I cant win. If I dont pay a fat cat, then I get slugged by the ATO. We are lucky to have the system we have and it should be made even better. I'd rather pay an extra 1% on my taxable income to ensure the health system looks after all Australians. Not that I think its necessary given the surplus budgets.

What about the 100 million or whatever the real figure is, the government is spending on propaganda at the moment. That should be spent elsewhere.

If we end up with an American system (which is where we are headed) watch the gap between rich and poor open up even further.

Another thing, why should I subsidise health care for the 50 plus adults who want a private room etc. It never failed to amaze me that some of my mate's wives insisted on private health insurance before they got pregnant. for?

OK off my box now.

[kiwigeo]

Another thing, why should I subsidise health care for the 50 plus adults who want a private room etc. It never failed to amaze me that some of my mate's wives insisted on private health insurance before they got pregnant. for?

In a few years time when your body starts falling apart it'll be your children saying the same thing about you as you sit in your private room burning their tax dollars.

Unfortunately health care costs go up as you get older.....the older proportion of the population needs more health care dollars than the young people.

The great thing though is everyone gets a turn being the young person doing the subsidising and the oldie receiving same. Seems like a fair enough deal to me.

[zathras]

I had private health cover for about 15 years up till about 6 months before Bonsai (Little Bush) played his usual scare card by trying to force punters into private health. (do the anti terror laws allow him to be locked up for an indeterminate time ???)

At the time that I cancelled the cover I deliberated for quite some time, do I?, don't I? At the time finances were tight and we simply could no longer afford to shell out $1000's each year on what was really a luxury item. (The haves and have nots)
My decision was I would rejoin in the future when our financial situation got better.

When "the best man to lead the country" then comes along 6 months later and pushes a carrot in front of everybodies face I was immediately on the back foot, and have been ever since.

The biggest problem the way I see it is my taxes are being used to prop up some inefficient private health fund. I have never bemoaned Medicare as it has to be the fairest way of achieving a balanced result.

These private health funds are usually headed by some fatcat and his cronies. I really do object to the 30% rebate as where do you think that money is really going to? Health services? yeah right. Fatcat's salary more like it, or even worse a shareholder divedend :mad:

Put the 30% rebate towards public hospitals and fix them properly.
Taxes are for the public's general good, not for a guaranteed re-distribution into a private industry, no tender required.

The penalty rates to join after the age of 30 are now an active disencentive to rejoin a private fund. As I said 15 years prior cover accounts for zilch if one needed to span a few years out of the private system after Little Johnny introduced his over 30 penalties.

Gee I hate that %**(&, When's the next election?

[PhilMcCrackin]

The big problem with today is that we can do so much more than yesterday in terms of helping and fixing health problems. It seems the older we get the more we are able to do to keep us going. This costs a lot of money. Much more money than it cost yesterday or last week or 10 years ago.

Our society is so focused on keeping people alive and well than we should perhaps be. I am not suggesting killing people off or let them suffer but it is well known that those last ten years of your life really cost the community lots and lots and lots of money. Your health dollars!

Legal issues/concerns often prevent doctors from keeping people just comfortable. TREAT TREAT TREAT - the biomedical model.

And those that think "well why pay when you can get it for free" are just plain selfish! Every time you do that, the waiting list/time just gets longer and longer for those who must choose the public system. Especailly those who do not have immediate life threatening problems but ailments that cause ongoing pain and suffering. In downtown Nambour Hospital (Queensland), it takes up to two years on the waiting list to get your first appointment to be on the waiting list to get your problem sorted out! This is the truth. And this is the way our governments cover the truth. Sure your on the waiting list for three months for your surgery (offically) but it takes two years on the waiting list to get there. So next time your in a public hospital covering your private health insurance card to save a few bucks......... shame shame shame on you!

[Wongo]

This is what I think

Let’s say both my wife and I are to live for another 40 years and we are paying $200 monthly. That is $96,000 before we both die. Is it enough? We don’t know. However, they money can work for me especially when we are paying off the mortgage.

A lot can happen in 40 years. Things can happen today, tomorrow or never. After all it is a risk but it is a small risk I can afford to take.

Personally I don’t particularly like the “what if you hit by a bus tomorrow” argument. It is unfair and is commonly used by life insurance sales reps.