Our rotten healthcare system.

Oddjob said:
You mean like HCF? There a quite a few co-operative ones. And guess what, they tend to be good value.

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I'm happy to hear of more, thus the question. I'd figured most had gone through the commercialisation process years ago. There was a local fund here, but like a lot of other insurance businesses they floated and commercialised years. Not so long ago they were talking about offering coverage for plastic surgery and dental work in places like Thailand...apparently to prevent people having nightmare experiences there that were then expensive to fix here. I can't remember if that ended up becoming a thing.
 
pink poodle said:
I'm happy to hear of more, thus the question. I'd figured most had gone through the commercialisation process years ago. There was a local fund here, but like a lot of other insurance businesses they floated and commercialised years. Not so long ago they were talking about offering coverage for plastic surgery and dental work in places like Thailand...apparently to prevent people having nightmare experiences there that were then expensive to fix here. I can't remember if that ended up becoming a thing.
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HBF are nfp too (was chat of a merger with HCF but not sure if that's happening or not).
 
I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself
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cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
I'm with Australian Unity who have been great to deal with but there is a list of some of the not for profit funds here
https://membersown.com.au/
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I was with them too. Sociopathic money grubbing $&@#s.... I enjoyed cancelling that one.

I understand that private insurance pays out a certain amount that might be argued to augment the public system. I just wonder how much better things might be if all the extra money that went offshore to insurers profits and dividends was also put into the health system...
 
Haakon said:
I was with them too. Sociopathic money grubbing $&@#s.... I enjoyed cancelling that one.

I understand that private insurance pays out a certain amount that might be argued to augment the public system. I just wonder how much better things might be if all the extra money that went offshore to insurers profits and dividends was also put into the health system...
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I think you've got the wrong idea about private health insurance and private health services. It takes pressure off the public system by encouraging people who can afford it to put their hands into their own pockets. Without that system you'd get the NHS which is worse then our system because there is less money overall available and its even more stratified, ie only the very wealthy can opt out of the 3 week wait to see a gp at the only clinic they are allowed to use.



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Just too add my experience and two bob. We are with Bupa.. cheap, useless, or cu*ts pick 2..
My youngest had a rough birth along with complications with my wife. All of it in the life threatening basket for both (icu). Both were in the private hospital and were transfered to the public because they were not equipped to deal with either issue. Because the boy got transferred we copped a fee outside our cover.. He was in a very poor state at this point, in nicu (neonatal extensive care) and we had a councilor take us aside to help us with the deep shit we were in.. During this process while my boy was nicu I had the insurance admin fuckers track me down, in icu, chasing the excess I needed to pay.. They fu*ken served up the bill while I am waiting to see if the youngest will survive or not.. Won’t ever forget that. If you are ever in the shit, big time, don’t use your private cover. The public system is far better than private, they actually give a shit..
The boy recovered well after many months and is fighting fit now a 8. The wife nearly lost her liver but that organ is one of the toughest in the body. She is good but was a very close call with both..
 
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wkkie said:
That's a disgrace @Kerplunk! Did you speak to anyone about it?

Glad everyone is ok now...
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The whole thing had hospital stuff ups all through out. We had several meetings with them and found out that procedural/operational changes were made because of their mishandling of the boys medical emergency. It was just a mess of a situation and we just wanted move on after spending a month back and forth from hospital.
To rub salt into the wound the fuckers sent us a another $1k bill on my son’s birthday 1 year later.. Their system stuffed up they reckon and they forgot to bill us. Everytime he went in and out of treatment from public to private bupa wanted an excess payment...
We negotiated that away after what had occured..
 
When my father was in hospital on his death bed (literally) his fucking useless GP did her rounds. Saw my mother sitting by his bed holding hands and asked to talk privately. So the GP could hand over about half a dozen "forgotten" bills for hospital visits in previous weeks. Something I will never forget. Pity she was in such a shit practice. Her plate glass window kept shattering.
 
pink poodle said:
Are they still your insurer?
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Sadly yes, as the cover for what we now require is the same wherever you go and they cut us a better $$ deal.. To be honest it was the behaviour of the private hospital enforcing that sucked most..
Imo all insurances are pretty much useless unless you have max $$$ coverage and something happens off their very specific incident list.. Especially with anything to do with medical compensation..
My wife previously worked on the legal side of things with victims fighting claims that weren denied. The BS insurance companies come up with not to pay is incredible.. For instance what an insurance fund defines as a heart attack.. I know another bloke who works on the PDS at a health fund, they have so many gun lawyers continuously tweaking the wording to ensure payouts are as difficult as possible..
 
Good podcast episode here from the ABC that reinforces the point we all know, the private health system is a cash cow for specialists (ie doctors). The AMA and the colleges are powerful and have all the friends. It could be better to put all public money into public health and stop subsidising private health. Kinda radical, and impossible because of power, politics and money money money
[The Economists - ABC RN] Is Medicare really 'unsustainable'?
http://podplayer.net/?id=48093277 via @PodcastAddict
 
Kerplunk -I would definitely agree BUPA are the worst. it must have been really traumatic that whole episode.
They are too big and powerful and our dumb regulators are hopeless. They run the shittiest aged facilities too.
Dales-As for me I dont charge dying patients for visits. Giving someone an account in that situation is very bad form.
 
rowdyflat said:
Kerplunk -I would definitely agree BUPA are the worst. it must have been really traumatic that whole episode.
They are too big and powerful and our dumb regulators are hopeless. They run the shittiest aged facilities too.
Dales-As for me I dont charge dying patients for visits. Giving someone an account in that situation is very bad form.
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She was a shocker. Good to hear there are good guys still around. A good mate does anaesthesia and emergency surgery. His stories about his brethren are scary.
 
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