Our rotten healthcare system.

[born-again-biker]

There's actually a few things going here. The first is the hybrid makeup of the health system in Australia. It's setup so that public health dollars are focused on prevantive and critical care. For non-critical specialist services the system uses waiting lists and the private system to get people who can afford to pay to do so. This is in many ways a good system.

The other side of the coin is what is covered under prevantative and critical care and the resourcing decisions state health departments make for non-critical specialist services. To the OP I hate to say it but you would have been better off going to Sydney or Melbourne for the procedure. Tasmania simply does not have the economies of scale as the major cities and the wait times and costs reflect this.

In general I think the Australian system serves the majority of Australians well but things get shakier in regional and remote areas especially with chronic illnesses.

We really should have basic dental covered though. There's mounting research showing that a lot of strokes and heart disease are caused by bacteria entering the bloodstream from bad teeth.



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Yeah, I suspect you're right on all fronts.
There's a regional problem for sure - but I think it's inexcusable. I don't get an income tax discount based on my post code!
They need to get their collective regional shitogether.

I guess the nature of my daughter's need is the biggest problem?
It's bad enough to affect her hearing and sleeping - which warrants a surgical correction. But it's not life threatening.
It isn't even in the same ball-park as @tubby74 or a million other serious conditions/diseases.
....but it still feels like I'm being fleeced for something straight-forward.

I would rather pay more tax and have a better public system (especially in regional areas)....or tax me less and I'll go the american way or self-insure.
But as it stands, it feels like we pay relatively high income tax .....AND most of us are paying insurance premiums for questionable benefit.

Like I said in the opening salvo, how did it come to this??

 

[Oddjob]

Yeah, I suspect you're right on all fronts.
There's a regional problem for sure - but I think it's inexcusable. I don't get an income tax discount based on my post code!
They need to get their collective regional shitogether.

I guess the nature of my daughter's need is the biggest problem?
It's bad enough to affect her hearing and sleeping - which warrants a surgical correction. But it's not life threatening.
It isn't even in the same ball-park as @tubby74 or a million other serious conditions/diseases.
....but it still feels like I'm being fleeced for something straight-forward.

I would rather pay more tax and have a better public system (especially in regional areas)....or tax me less and I'll go the american way or self-insure.
But as it stands, it feels like we pay relatively high income tax .....AND most of us are paying insurance premiums for questionable benefit.

Like I said in the opening salvo, how did it come to this??

But you do get a cost of living discount by being in Tassie. The rental and housing would be an order of magnitude lower than Sydney or Melbourne.

Overall though Australia has a reasonably small government at about 25% of gdp. We get a hell of a lot of services for that tax take in part by having hybrid service delivery systems.



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[Zaf]

Removed by user

 

[Minlak]

Lol.......

 

[Ultra Lord]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I can take the cumulative value of every specialist's car here and still not make $400,000 with them, and there's about twenty of them in the clinic alone. In fact the local Physician and Rheumatologist (husband and wife) are known around town for only owning bikes and not owning a car; they do have a nice house, but just the one. So yeah, it's really quite amusing to be able to sit around with friends asking them where their $400,000 car and extensive property portfolio are, and have a bit of a laugh at the disconnect between perception and reality. Not to mention we're all working for an AMS in a rural location, the pay package is fairly solid.

But as if the first generalisation isn't enough, better double them up with an entitled "god complex" syndrome as well. If I don't laugh I'll just have to cry, and there have been enough tears in my year. Although I'm sure they exist, almost without exception, every doctor I know is compassionate and humble.

If you don't like the private system, don't use it. Pay your medicare rebate, and enjoy the public system. And go hang out with some doctors some time, they're just people doing a job like anyone else.

Shut up pleb

 

[pink poodle]

Did you check his qualifications?? He's prolly a fake.
Maybe it was just a courtesy car while the Porsche was getting serviced?

He was thinking of getting a Volvo...


...I know a young school teacher with a Volvo. It's a nice car.

 

[pink poodle]

it's really quite amusing to be able to sit around with friends asking them where their $400,000 car andextensive property portfolio are, and have a bit of a laugh

You're really missing an opportunity here. They need someone to put that money to work for them, so they can focus on the important day to day stuff.

 

[rowdyflat]

I am a GP , everything said here is true ie some smart arsed doctors like to show off but it shows a lack of business acumen ie cars are not an investment.
The neoliberals have taken over the private health system it is an industry not a service .
The public system is excellent if you have a lethal condition but for elective surgery it is rubbish ie your daughter's ear problem.
if we wasted less money on gaoling asylum seekers ,wasting it on my health records [ a complete con ] and building anti terrorist security, we would have more money for health.
Unfortunately destructive capitalism and self interest wins.It could be worse you could be in the USA, now that is really shit.
How conservatives have sold the idea , to the poor there ,who vote for Trump , that socialised medicine is bad, is unbelievable ?

 

[Ultra Lord]

^aaaaaand there we have it

 

[link1896]

Rowdy has summed it up nicely.

 

[John U]

Healthcare should be ‘free’ and accessible to all. Education, including tertiary, should be ‘free’ and accessible to all. Perverting these principles produces perverted results. A healthy and educated society is a happier and more productive society. Not that everyone needs to jump on the uni bandwagon but everyone should have the option.

 

[Nambra]

I know a cardiologist who drives an older Honda Accord. Do they appreciate in value like other high end cars? Or should I depreciate the car from 400k?

This will explain his choice in cars, they sound awesome.

Sorry, couldn't resist - it's Christmas...

I feel for you @born-again-biker - when it's your kids all you want is what's best for them. I can't comment too much on the pub/priv health system, as I've had mostly good experiences with both. But I do wonder at the gaps that some specialists charge above the scheduled fee - my wife and I both agreed when we had the kids that we'd be fucked if we were going to pay $3k+ (in 2004 dollars) for obstetrics in a private hospital knowing that if shit got complicated during delivery they'd just send us to the public hospital anyway. And, as it turned out we were lucky we did - kid no. 1 was a long labour with complications and my wife nearly died post-delivery. I don't know that she would have survived an ambulance ride across town had we gone private.

I'll admit that I have capitalist tendencies - I own a business, want to support my family in a comfortable life, and want money for bikes if I'm honest (I also pay a shitload of business and personal tax). But, I also believe that some industries should have never been privatised - health, energy, communications to name three. The need to generate (often offshore) shareholder profits is incongruous to a need to deliver basic services at the lowest cost. Throwing that out to the private sector based on arguments such as "fostering a competitive market" doesn't work when policy and industry regulation isn't aligned with the needs of the consumer. I'd further argue that the environment that privatisation was borne out of ie. grossly inefficient public sector delivery of power, health, post, phones etc. would likely not exist today if it were all still under public ownership - governments are a lot more accountable for their productivity now, and technology has reduced the head-count of what were big fat lazy departments. The other problem is the politicisation of these sectors - government representatives making decisions to win votes instead of for the greater good - who's still eagerly awaiting the NBN?

That's just my generalised opinion and I'm sure some will disagree - one thing I won't knock though is the hard-working individuals that you do come across in front line service delivery in these sectors however they're run - nurses, doctors, the telco techs, electrical linesmen etc. It's the ones taking the piss that I have no time for - welfare cheats, economic refugees and the other leaches that suck dollars from the public purse that denies people like @born-again-biker a better outcome for his daughter.

 

[nzhumpy]

they do have a nice house, but just the one.

If that was the one on Grand Designs a few years back it's a bit more than a nice house...

 

[Calvin27]

Somebody watched Sicko.

I didn't but just googled it, looks kind of b grade - worth the watch of just more of the same?

I really have no qualms with medical specialists earning big buck - go for your life, i kind of lean capitalist for this topic. But I do have issues with the way our system is currently set up. Specifically:
- MLS and the flow on effect of people buying junk policies
- Lifetime loading BS - basically a threat to young folks to force them to subsidise older/higher risk folks
- The fact that insurance policy requires at least 3 PHDs of which two are actuary and biomedicine fields. I mean seriously how does anyone actually navigate that shit. Imagine if car insurances were like that - 30% up to $2000 for a front end collision, but reduces by 5% for each mm of rain in the previous 5 days. That's what it would actually be in car terms lol.

 

[Zaf]

Removed by user

 

[Nambra]

Nice place @Zaf, where do you keep the Nicolai?

 

[nzhumpy]

@nzhumpy http://dunnhillam.com.au/desert-house-alice-springs/
This one?

That's the one, saw something on it a while back on Foxtel, looks like a well thought out place.

 

[tubby74]

doctors are well into the top 1% to start with, do long arduous training that never ends. top guys work some big hours too. when in hospital i would see the surgeon at 630 checking up and doing rounds and back again at 730pm. my 8 hour surgery wasnt his first or last of the day.

my sister in the uk has a very painful but not threatening condition. can take weeks to get a GP appointment. and its all try this when still in pain for months try and get another appointment . worse than chess by sea mail.

 

[mas2]

I don’t have private health and have found personally our healthcare system is pretty good. From childbirths to ambo callouts to broken bones and sickness. Could they be better - yep, could they be worse - definitely. Particularly compared with workmates in USA.

But now it’s solution time. To get cash we should charge $100 per person who visits hospital with self induced alcohol, fighting, and drug related injuries. I’m sick of paying taxes to mostly cover people abusing the crap out of doctors and staff on a weekly basis. When it’s not safe at 7pm on a Friday night for my wife to sit in the emergency waiting room we have a problem.

 

[Zaf]

Removed by user