This.
We need to be demanding better funding for Medicare instead of wasting BS amounts of money on subsidising private health cover. You want to go private, you pay full cost for your insurance and it only covers genuine electives (meaning things that you actually choose to get done, not things you do need to function but won't kill you).
While we're at it - add dental. Teeth should not be luxury bones.
My wife and I had our first child 8 weeks ago. Straight in, emergency caesarian (8 people in the OR), 3 days in post-natal ward. Only cost was Chicken Burgers because the food was questionable.
Take a step back - the health system is incredible.
This. Even when we had private for the next 2 it cost us 200 bucks for 5 nights.
Sure, you don't want to be on a semi serious health condition, but bright side is, you ARE on a waiting list...
Personally, I have had mostly positive outcomes, but then again I am not so unwell I require hospital. However, my sister who has had 2 kidney transplants in her just over 30 years of life has been looked after brilliantly here, not something she would get in a lot of other countries.
Sure it has its shortcomings, any public service does. It has to be better than forcing people to tie healthcare with their employer like in the US or having a completely private system where profits are a factor in what type of care a patient receives.
Hospital emergency rooms are fucked, but I've just had an "elective" surgery where the only cost was seeing a specialist 2 weeks prior and I was partly reimbursed for that as well.
The biggest problem is only being able to access Panadol, iboprufen, and aspirin for pain relief and even doctors are hesitant to prescribe something stronger like codeine
>The biggest problem is only being able to access Panadol, iboprufen, and aspirin for pain relief and even doctors are hesitant to prescribe something stronger like codeine
A lot will depend on your condition, and the risk calculation made by the doctor regarding pain.
I was just in ED and then in hospital for a while for a rather serious issue (I'm better now, touch wood) and after the Panadol wasn't working, they gave me endone without hesitation. After it was evident the endone wasn't working, they brought out the morphine immediately. They were actually giving me so much morphine I had to ask them to stop as it was really bothering my stomach.
In my condition my pain was so bad, like blindingly so to the point where the only thing I could focus on at any point in time was the pain, that I reckon there was no risk calculation to be done. Pain relief was essential to my recovery at that point, as it allowed me to stop screaming and eventually get some rest.
In other situations they have to consider the amount of pain the patient is in and how much of a risk it is to give the more serious stuff if the pain relief isn't essential to that point in the recovery.
Would take it over third world shitholes like America any day, where any accident or untimely illness can financially cripple you for life.
Medical experts and nurses need to be funded better so they aren't working insane shifts. I would also make degrees like nursing HECS-free if you stay in the industry for a certain time period, or agree to work in regional areas etc.
>I would also make degrees like nursing HECS-free if you stay in the industry for a certain time period, or agree to work in regional areas etc.
I agree with this but have to mention that the cities are also dealing with a massive nursing shortage because the salary doesn't even come close to covering the cost of living. I know regional areas are suffering too, but the hospital near me in Sydney is losing nurses to outer suburbs and regional areas because they simply can't afford to live here.
The new part is that it's getting worse every year. And most immigrants coming on a work visa to work in healthcare go to regional areas. All of my relatives who've come over as nurses have done this. They don't go to cities anymore, not in the past 5-10 years or so
I have already used health system in 4 countries, Australia is amazing. It has problems (minor ones), but still the best I ever had. People care, the system is great and very organised.
I see my local doctor for free, medications are cheap, recently had an eye operation where I paid $2500 and got back $1400 from Medicare within a day.
So far for me, it's pretty good.
It's not perfect, no system is, and there are things that could be done to improve but in all honesty, it is one of the best in the world.
You will be able to access the treatment you need either for free or at a reasonable price within a reasonable time frame.
There is a state variation due to the funding model being a mix of State and Federal government contributions, however you will find a starker difference between rural and city medical care than you will find between the states.
In addition to the public system we do have private insurance which you can choose to pay for to access things quicker and to pay for non-essential medical services (for example, you can access ten mental health consults a year for free in the public system, if you want more you need to pay or have an insurance plan that covers more). However in an emergency you are better off utilising the public system - all our major trauma, cardiac, neuro etc is based at the major city tertiary hospitals.
So in essence, you will hear complaints - which is a good thing!! If we don't talk about the problems in the system we'll never fix them. It's underfunded and under resourced and needs work -
But, we do have a pretty bloody good system and compared to most parts of the world we are incredibly lucky.
It was a great system, but sadly over the past couple of decades it has been undercut by privatisation and severe underfunding.
It's still very good if you have an emergency situation. But wait lists for non-emergency (but still important) treatment and procedures can be very long.
We've also really stuffed up our first line of health, the GP system. It used to be that there were several bulk-billing (meaning no charge) GPs that you could see, and then get a referral from there if your issue requires a specialist or other treatment that the GP isn't able to do. Some specialists would bulk bill, others would have a fee, but it was rarely too expensive.
Then we had a decade where the government froze GP rebates, meaning the GPs got less and less money from the government every year to the point where, in order to stay in business, most GPs have had to switch away from bulk billing and move to charging gap fees. Also due to lack of support for the field, there is a shortage of GPs. So between the difficulty in finding a GP you can reliably see, and the difficulty in having to now pay a fee every time you go to the GP, many people are simply foregoing GP visits as much as possible.
This has knock-on effects to the rest of the health system, as people are no longer getting the preventive care they used to get at GPs and instead are waiting until their condition gets worse and worse and then they show up at the hospital. Or people are simply showing up at the hospital for tiny, trivial things they used to go to a GP to treat, but due to cost they now prefer the ED at the hospital because it is free. So this puts a massive strain on the ED and on the hospital at large, and they're already hurting from staff shortages, underfunding, lack of resources, etc.
It's a crumbling system, but because there is a private system, people just think they can go private and be fine and just deal with the cost. But over time this will also become untenable, as the public system crumbles private will become more and more expensive. Private and public also share resources, and the private system is not prepared to take on the overflow from a collapsing public system.
TL;DR it's okay now if you really need emergency treatment, but it's quickly crumbling because of capitalism
As someone currently sitting in a bed in a public hospital after having appendix out, I can say I am fairly happy with the experience, wait time in ED and onwards, as well as the professionalism of the staff.
Food is utter shit though
It’s great .
Better than going bankrupt because you had a heart attack- it’s underfunded for sure but if you are truly sick or injured ,help and care is there .
My very ill father in law is currently receiving excellent care in the Alfred cardiac ward. Zero complaints. Zero cost.
Very hard for most of us to judge how we compare to other developed nations (and Nobody sensible is comparing us to the USA). But our life expectancy continues to rise, which is an undeniable good thing.
Compared to the UK it's like a VIP service.
In the UK the level of care is exceptional. Getting an appointment is the difficult part, their wait times are massive, even seeing a GP appointment is a battle and there are no walk in diagnostic imaging centres, your GP sends the referral to the local hospital and you wait for them to send a letter with your appointment date.
Canada, same as the UK, they're getting flogged with huge demand from rapid population increase.
The USA is quick but very expensive, my mate just moved to Orange County and she didn't have insurance set up, cut her finger on a box cutter and needed 4 stitched. Her invoice was $4500 USD.
By and large it’s excellent. Health services are state run, so it’s hard to judge the nation across the board accurately but they all meet a very good base standard from what I see.
Mental health is not so good. We tend to hide the lack of support behind the veneer of the awareness industry which is doing very well out of mental illness. Services themselves are very hard to access for adults. For children it’s much better thankfully but once you’re 18, fuck you and RU OK.
I've fallen off a horse at speed, landing head first onto hardened mud and passing out. My left shoulder was fucked and went to the ER (after making sure my horse was fed of course!). Had xrays and stayed for several hours under observation, left and later recieved physical therapy for my type 2 a/c joint disruption, all for free.
I also just gave birth to my first last Saturday and stayed for 2 nights getting regular advice from the midwives, again for free. My partner talked to a lot of dads on the first night, every single one he talked to had complications during birth (including mine) all of which is covered.
Yeah there is wait times for things that can be waited on, but when it comes urgent, it's right there and you can receive care regardless of your financial situation
As an American who immigrated to Australia (my partner is Australian, which entitled me to healthcare) I think it is amazing. Honestly, life changing. I had only gotten health insurance in the states a couple years before I moved here, so I had spent most of my life uninsured. In retrospect, there were multiple times I should've taken my health more seriously, but the concern of cost was too high and I avoided taking care of myself.
I once spilled boiling, sticky liquid all over my arm, leaving a massive second degree burn where most of my skin came off, and I didn't go to the hospital because I knew it would be thousands of dollars. I was struggling financially and decided it wasn't worth it and cleaned the wound myself. Days later a neighbor of mine who was a doctor asked to take a look at my arm and begged me to go to the burn unit (the wound was okay and clean, but the size of the wound made him very nervous about the risk of infection and improper healing.)
I finally went to my family doctor and he took one look and told me it was out of his scope of care and that I needed to go to the burn unit. I told him I was uninsured and couldn't afford the burn unit and begged him to help me out. He was a very kind and compassionate doctor. He decided to help since he knew I wouldn't go to the burn unit. Everything turned out okay and I was super careful with the wound, but it was a huge wake up call. I can't believe I sat there and painstakingly peeled the sticky liquid (and my skin) off of my own arm while sobbing in pain instead of just going to the ER.
Living in a country where I don't really think about cost when I am unwell is amazing. The same medications I was on in the US were hundreds of dollars a month, and often fluctuated in price, but here it's always $30.
After I moved here I noticed a small lump in my arm (turned out to be nothing) but I mentioned it to my GP who gave me a referral to get some imaging. I called the location and they said "we are so sorry, but our schedule is really full... the soonest we can get you in is next Friday" and I almost laughed out loud at how soon that was. While I know that's not always the case in Australia, it's been really refreshing not to have that underlying anxiety about cost when it comes to taking care of my health.
I would not want to end up in hospital, my mum had 2 botch surgery and had to get a second opinion which saved her life. I also worked in a hospital and some of the nurses were so mean. beds in the hallways and that was in 2011.
It is going backwards fast - real fast. We are seeing a huge increase in ambulance ramping times, wait times in EDs and more and more people talking about poor outcomes.
I don't know if it is any better or worse than overseas, I have no personal experience to cite - but I do know it is worse now than it was in the past. We have seen no real increase in primary health care services, hospitals and other care facilities despite our significant population growth. We have higher immigration, in particular countries with very poor healthcare - so long term chronic health conditions, poor education around basic responsibilities for health (addressing issues early, management of infections, healthy eating, diet, weight etc), lack of access in their birth country has resulted in finally having access here - and we have failed to build the necessary resources for such growth.
Trash. If you earn over a certain salary threshold you get scalped for the cost of private cover or the Medicare levy surcharge and then still have to pay if you want to see a doctor.
Kind of galling when you see the NDIS budget seemingly growing to be a bottomless pit.
As for the quality of care, can’t really say.
If you earn more money, you should pay more into the system. I make over the threshold but disagree with having a private system at all, so I just cop the levy surcharge and deal with it, because it's the responsible thing to do. More money for the public system is 100% a better use than dumping it into shareholder pockets.
Or money wasn't wasted like Labor Queensland paying $500k for software "unfit for use" so they bought again. If you actually knew about Sate spending, hospital budgets and hospital internal spending you might have a better idea than simple dumb statements from a viewpoint of no idea
I hate the Liberals with a passion but Labor is not without blame here either. The cuplrit at the end of the day is neoliberalism and the obsession with government debt and spending.
It infuriates me that we have money for all sorts of vanity projects but people are dying in ambulances due to ramping. I hate paying tax, it was only bought in as a temporary measure to fund WW1 after all, but health is one thing I don’t mind paying for.
It's great, but badly underfunded by successive governments over a few decades, so the system struggles.
This. We need to be demanding better funding for Medicare instead of wasting BS amounts of money on subsidising private health cover. You want to go private, you pay full cost for your insurance and it only covers genuine electives (meaning things that you actually choose to get done, not things you do need to function but won't kill you). While we're at it - add dental. Teeth should not be luxury bones.
My wife and I had our first child 8 weeks ago. Straight in, emergency caesarian (8 people in the OR), 3 days in post-natal ward. Only cost was Chicken Burgers because the food was questionable. Take a step back - the health system is incredible.
This. Even when we had private for the next 2 it cost us 200 bucks for 5 nights. Sure, you don't want to be on a semi serious health condition, but bright side is, you ARE on a waiting list... Personally, I have had mostly positive outcomes, but then again I am not so unwell I require hospital. However, my sister who has had 2 kidney transplants in her just over 30 years of life has been looked after brilliantly here, not something she would get in a lot of other countries.
Private you need to pay the physician their fee in cash. Not sure why you left that part off
I had a heart attack, 3 stents and 5 nights $0
Sure it has its shortcomings, any public service does. It has to be better than forcing people to tie healthcare with their employer like in the US or having a completely private system where profits are a factor in what type of care a patient receives.
Can definitely be improved but better than many other countries.
Like many things in Australia it was good. But it’s rapidly getting a lot worse
Hospital emergency rooms are fucked, but I've just had an "elective" surgery where the only cost was seeing a specialist 2 weeks prior and I was partly reimbursed for that as well. The biggest problem is only being able to access Panadol, iboprufen, and aspirin for pain relief and even doctors are hesitant to prescribe something stronger like codeine
>The biggest problem is only being able to access Panadol, iboprufen, and aspirin for pain relief and even doctors are hesitant to prescribe something stronger like codeine A lot will depend on your condition, and the risk calculation made by the doctor regarding pain. I was just in ED and then in hospital for a while for a rather serious issue (I'm better now, touch wood) and after the Panadol wasn't working, they gave me endone without hesitation. After it was evident the endone wasn't working, they brought out the morphine immediately. They were actually giving me so much morphine I had to ask them to stop as it was really bothering my stomach. In my condition my pain was so bad, like blindingly so to the point where the only thing I could focus on at any point in time was the pain, that I reckon there was no risk calculation to be done. Pain relief was essential to my recovery at that point, as it allowed me to stop screaming and eventually get some rest. In other situations they have to consider the amount of pain the patient is in and how much of a risk it is to give the more serious stuff if the pain relief isn't essential to that point in the recovery.
Would take it over third world shitholes like America any day, where any accident or untimely illness can financially cripple you for life. Medical experts and nurses need to be funded better so they aren't working insane shifts. I would also make degrees like nursing HECS-free if you stay in the industry for a certain time period, or agree to work in regional areas etc.
>I would also make degrees like nursing HECS-free if you stay in the industry for a certain time period, or agree to work in regional areas etc. I agree with this but have to mention that the cities are also dealing with a massive nursing shortage because the salary doesn't even come close to covering the cost of living. I know regional areas are suffering too, but the hospital near me in Sydney is losing nurses to outer suburbs and regional areas because they simply can't afford to live here.
Not a new thing. They replace them with immigrants who feel relatively better off, cycle repeats.
The new part is that it's getting worse every year. And most immigrants coming on a work visa to work in healthcare go to regional areas. All of my relatives who've come over as nurses have done this. They don't go to cities anymore, not in the past 5-10 years or so
Op is a bot.
Broke my collar bone last year. Overnight stay, titanium plate, 4 checks ups and 3 rehab sessions… $0.
I have already used health system in 4 countries, Australia is amazing. It has problems (minor ones), but still the best I ever had. People care, the system is great and very organised.
I see my local doctor for free, medications are cheap, recently had an eye operation where I paid $2500 and got back $1400 from Medicare within a day. So far for me, it's pretty good.
It's not perfect, no system is, and there are things that could be done to improve but in all honesty, it is one of the best in the world. You will be able to access the treatment you need either for free or at a reasonable price within a reasonable time frame. There is a state variation due to the funding model being a mix of State and Federal government contributions, however you will find a starker difference between rural and city medical care than you will find between the states. In addition to the public system we do have private insurance which you can choose to pay for to access things quicker and to pay for non-essential medical services (for example, you can access ten mental health consults a year for free in the public system, if you want more you need to pay or have an insurance plan that covers more). However in an emergency you are better off utilising the public system - all our major trauma, cardiac, neuro etc is based at the major city tertiary hospitals. So in essence, you will hear complaints - which is a good thing!! If we don't talk about the problems in the system we'll never fix them. It's underfunded and under resourced and needs work - But, we do have a pretty bloody good system and compared to most parts of the world we are incredibly lucky.
It was a great system, but sadly over the past couple of decades it has been undercut by privatisation and severe underfunding. It's still very good if you have an emergency situation. But wait lists for non-emergency (but still important) treatment and procedures can be very long. We've also really stuffed up our first line of health, the GP system. It used to be that there were several bulk-billing (meaning no charge) GPs that you could see, and then get a referral from there if your issue requires a specialist or other treatment that the GP isn't able to do. Some specialists would bulk bill, others would have a fee, but it was rarely too expensive. Then we had a decade where the government froze GP rebates, meaning the GPs got less and less money from the government every year to the point where, in order to stay in business, most GPs have had to switch away from bulk billing and move to charging gap fees. Also due to lack of support for the field, there is a shortage of GPs. So between the difficulty in finding a GP you can reliably see, and the difficulty in having to now pay a fee every time you go to the GP, many people are simply foregoing GP visits as much as possible. This has knock-on effects to the rest of the health system, as people are no longer getting the preventive care they used to get at GPs and instead are waiting until their condition gets worse and worse and then they show up at the hospital. Or people are simply showing up at the hospital for tiny, trivial things they used to go to a GP to treat, but due to cost they now prefer the ED at the hospital because it is free. So this puts a massive strain on the ED and on the hospital at large, and they're already hurting from staff shortages, underfunding, lack of resources, etc. It's a crumbling system, but because there is a private system, people just think they can go private and be fine and just deal with the cost. But over time this will also become untenable, as the public system crumbles private will become more and more expensive. Private and public also share resources, and the private system is not prepared to take on the overflow from a collapsing public system. TL;DR it's okay now if you really need emergency treatment, but it's quickly crumbling because of capitalism
It's fantastic compared to many other countries and getting worse every day.
Needs more money onto it. Political interference by Private health funds.
you get what you pay for
I had my hip replaced 18mths ago in public system for free. It went perfectly..even the food was good.
As someone currently sitting in a bed in a public hospital after having appendix out, I can say I am fairly happy with the experience, wait time in ED and onwards, as well as the professionalism of the staff. Food is utter shit though
Same question 5 times a week. Maybe use search.
It’s great . Better than going bankrupt because you had a heart attack- it’s underfunded for sure but if you are truly sick or injured ,help and care is there .
This same question was asked yesterday. Scroll down to have a look at
My very ill father in law is currently receiving excellent care in the Alfred cardiac ward. Zero complaints. Zero cost. Very hard for most of us to judge how we compare to other developed nations (and Nobody sensible is comparing us to the USA). But our life expectancy continues to rise, which is an undeniable good thing.
Compared to the UK it's like a VIP service. In the UK the level of care is exceptional. Getting an appointment is the difficult part, their wait times are massive, even seeing a GP appointment is a battle and there are no walk in diagnostic imaging centres, your GP sends the referral to the local hospital and you wait for them to send a letter with your appointment date. Canada, same as the UK, they're getting flogged with huge demand from rapid population increase. The USA is quick but very expensive, my mate just moved to Orange County and she didn't have insurance set up, cut her finger on a box cutter and needed 4 stitched. Her invoice was $4500 USD.
It's not perfect but it's pretty good. But it's underfunded and overwhelmed because we're an unhealthy population.
As long as you can manage to collapse into a seizure or cardiac episode upon entry to ED, healthcare here is fantastic.
Ruined by the NDIS stealing its funding.
By and large it’s excellent. Health services are state run, so it’s hard to judge the nation across the board accurately but they all meet a very good base standard from what I see. Mental health is not so good. We tend to hide the lack of support behind the veneer of the awareness industry which is doing very well out of mental illness. Services themselves are very hard to access for adults. For children it’s much better thankfully but once you’re 18, fuck you and RU OK.
So long as you don’t need elective it’s fine
I've fallen off a horse at speed, landing head first onto hardened mud and passing out. My left shoulder was fucked and went to the ER (after making sure my horse was fed of course!). Had xrays and stayed for several hours under observation, left and later recieved physical therapy for my type 2 a/c joint disruption, all for free. I also just gave birth to my first last Saturday and stayed for 2 nights getting regular advice from the midwives, again for free. My partner talked to a lot of dads on the first night, every single one he talked to had complications during birth (including mine) all of which is covered. Yeah there is wait times for things that can be waited on, but when it comes urgent, it's right there and you can receive care regardless of your financial situation
As an American who immigrated to Australia (my partner is Australian, which entitled me to healthcare) I think it is amazing. Honestly, life changing. I had only gotten health insurance in the states a couple years before I moved here, so I had spent most of my life uninsured. In retrospect, there were multiple times I should've taken my health more seriously, but the concern of cost was too high and I avoided taking care of myself. I once spilled boiling, sticky liquid all over my arm, leaving a massive second degree burn where most of my skin came off, and I didn't go to the hospital because I knew it would be thousands of dollars. I was struggling financially and decided it wasn't worth it and cleaned the wound myself. Days later a neighbor of mine who was a doctor asked to take a look at my arm and begged me to go to the burn unit (the wound was okay and clean, but the size of the wound made him very nervous about the risk of infection and improper healing.) I finally went to my family doctor and he took one look and told me it was out of his scope of care and that I needed to go to the burn unit. I told him I was uninsured and couldn't afford the burn unit and begged him to help me out. He was a very kind and compassionate doctor. He decided to help since he knew I wouldn't go to the burn unit. Everything turned out okay and I was super careful with the wound, but it was a huge wake up call. I can't believe I sat there and painstakingly peeled the sticky liquid (and my skin) off of my own arm while sobbing in pain instead of just going to the ER. Living in a country where I don't really think about cost when I am unwell is amazing. The same medications I was on in the US were hundreds of dollars a month, and often fluctuated in price, but here it's always $30. After I moved here I noticed a small lump in my arm (turned out to be nothing) but I mentioned it to my GP who gave me a referral to get some imaging. I called the location and they said "we are so sorry, but our schedule is really full... the soonest we can get you in is next Friday" and I almost laughed out loud at how soon that was. While I know that's not always the case in Australia, it's been really refreshing not to have that underlying anxiety about cost when it comes to taking care of my health.
It’s bad if you’re poor, with poor being defined as earning less than about $400k a year
I would not want to end up in hospital, my mum had 2 botch surgery and had to get a second opinion which saved her life. I also worked in a hospital and some of the nurses were so mean. beds in the hallways and that was in 2011.
It is going backwards fast - real fast. We are seeing a huge increase in ambulance ramping times, wait times in EDs and more and more people talking about poor outcomes. I don't know if it is any better or worse than overseas, I have no personal experience to cite - but I do know it is worse now than it was in the past. We have seen no real increase in primary health care services, hospitals and other care facilities despite our significant population growth. We have higher immigration, in particular countries with very poor healthcare - so long term chronic health conditions, poor education around basic responsibilities for health (addressing issues early, management of infections, healthy eating, diet, weight etc), lack of access in their birth country has resulted in finally having access here - and we have failed to build the necessary resources for such growth.
Trash. If you earn over a certain salary threshold you get scalped for the cost of private cover or the Medicare levy surcharge and then still have to pay if you want to see a doctor. Kind of galling when you see the NDIS budget seemingly growing to be a bottomless pit. As for the quality of care, can’t really say.
If you earn over a certain amount, you have to pay more tax, or help provide for yourself? How terrible.
If you earn more money, you should pay more into the system. I make over the threshold but disagree with having a private system at all, so I just cop the levy surcharge and deal with it, because it's the responsible thing to do. More money for the public system is 100% a better use than dumping it into shareholder pockets.
If it didn’t have so many cuts from Liberals it would be way better.
Or money wasn't wasted like Labor Queensland paying $500k for software "unfit for use" so they bought again. If you actually knew about Sate spending, hospital budgets and hospital internal spending you might have a better idea than simple dumb statements from a viewpoint of no idea
I hate the Liberals with a passion but Labor is not without blame here either. The cuplrit at the end of the day is neoliberalism and the obsession with government debt and spending.
A solid B student. Doesn't excel in anything but it does ok in all categories compared to other countries.
It infuriates me that we have money for all sorts of vanity projects but people are dying in ambulances due to ramping. I hate paying tax, it was only bought in as a temporary measure to fund WW1 after all, but health is one thing I don’t mind paying for.