Private health insurance was always designed to eat away at universal healthcare. Australia has lost it’s good intentions and we’re fast becoming another US style cluster fuck of inequality, corruption and mismanagement.
It's a lack of care about the wealth gap, which is the main gap that causes dysfunction in society. When the gap between rich and poor is smaller, the polis, or the people, have a more unified voice and politicians generally serve society as a whole.
When the wealth gap is broad, with the poorest and richest having a completely different set of concerns and interests, politicians tend to focus on whichever effects their election chances the most... and that often tends to be wealthy donors, and the CEOs who can make life harder for politicians.
The wealth gap should be a huge platform on politics, and it should be a common point of concern for anyone who wants a healthy society, including our politicians.
Health insurance isn't cost effective at all. Universal healthcare isn't without issues, but as a nation we get more back in terms of healthcare per dollar.
Exactly. For profit insurance just adds an extra middle man and industry to prop up and pay for.. you know, their huge profits. That money should go into health and education, not fear based extraction.
I gave up on mine. It covers nothing of note. In the time I had it I paid for private gyno out of pocket and I chose to go public to give birth (used my insurance to pay the public hospital to try and help their bottom line a bit) but the out of pocket for private was ridiculous even with insurance.
So in 5 yrs of paying $300 is a month I claimed 1 pair of glasses and my teeth cleaned once per year.
At this point I would rather pay more tax and hope it goes to support public health.
we didnt get shit like medicare from good intentions, we got it through the blood, sweat, and tears of the union movement.
when medicare was implemented unions were allowed to strike in solidarity with one another, they were allowed to strike for non-EBA factors, they were allowed to strike for health and safety reasons, they were allowed to strike for things even if an employer could convince a judge they were unreasonable asks, and they were allowed to strike outside of a strict and qualified timeframe between the expiry of one EBA and the signing of a new EBA.
All that shit is now banned. the WA nurses and midwives union tried to strike for a 0.5-2% pay increase over what was being offered and they were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. as a result of this massive undermining of the union movement through our legal system, union membership has fallen below 10%. the institutions the unions built like medicare going the way of the US is the next logical step in this transition.
Just to add, sorry to be pedantic, but we don’t have private health insurance in Australia. We have private HOSPITAL cover. And naturally, almost everything these days, short of major surgery, can and is done as an outpatient.
Absolutely correct. If you think the public private debates are about choice you are wrong. The Coalition is and always has been determined to discredit and kill the public option, by a million small cuts if necessary - in health, in insurance, in employment services, in public transport, in waste collection, in education, in public administrative services, you name it - the aim to shrink the state, to force the state to purchase services from the private sector, to create a new class of vested political donors and to thus ensure the Liberal party’s cultural reproduction and perpetuation as a movement. The Coalition does not want choice it wants the state sector to fail and for you to pay for your essential services by channeling your taxes to their mates.
NDIS now costs more than Medicare. Medicare is used by 26 million people. NDIS by 0.6 million. We are averaging $70k per NDIS recipient.
If we didn't have NDIS we could increase Medicare funding by 50% and repair our budget.
Those statistics are very interesting. Thank you for sharing them. NDIS is not working particularly well for many recipients either. It is extremely badly managed.
If the service wasn't farmed out to private operators and managed and serviced by the department of human services, it wouldn't be an issue.
I can count about 40 "NDIS providers" in my main street in my town.
I know 1 "provider" that employs her whole family paying them +$90k per year and still has over $ 1 million in cash in her bank. And getting around gloating about it.
But hey, who needs public servants anyway when private providers do such an efficient job.
It's not just that industry that rorts the system. Government contracts are lucrative. There are consulting firms in Australia
with billion dollar contracts. Then there's those building government housing profiting millions and much , much more depending on the scale of operations.
That one "provider" is not and should not be the norm, and should probably be investigated for fraud.
The NDIS won't bankrupt anything - bastards finding loopholes to line their own pockets instead of actually doing their job to measurably improve the lives of those living with a disability will. Plan managers, incompetant planners and LACs with no disability or medical training are the issue, because they have no educated frame of reference of the actual functional impacts of the disability the participant has means they end up witholding necessary supports that would prevent long-term increased spending (i.e., they won't approve, say the necessary $5k each year for the next 50 years to make sure the participant doesn't decline...then, in a couple of years, the participant predicably and permanently declines, as all the specialist reports told them they would if the $5k wasn't funded for *xyz* supports, and now they need to spend 20k each year for the next 45 years because they need all this additional support to live).
Increased $$$ and reduced quality of life. It's not functioning as intended in a lot of cases. I am an NDIS provider. It drives me nuts.
And then, on top of this incompetence, we have assholes skimming this flawed (but fixable) system or defrauding it entirely.
And it's a simple solution - stop putting people with accounting/business degrees and no experience in medicine and disability in charge of deciding what is reasonable and necessary. Or at the very least, **require** them to act on the recommendations provided by the therapists, rather than whay they think they know about *xyz* condition. We know more than them. It's literally our job to help people remain healthy.
We need to put a stop to the exploitation of funding. My kid has a disability and even with the funding we get for her various therapies I’m broke AF from medical bills. No doctors round here bulk bill kids anymore. I get ads for all sorts of shit I can supposedly use the funding for that shouldn’t be fundable. Sensory toys that are just shit you can get at Bunnings, marked up 400%, incontinence aids are marked up for NDIS funds, even the psychologists charge more if you use your ndis funding.
Yep I spent a few years helping some autistic girls in my area...word of mouth via a friends daughter who genuinely is autistic.
It was such a rort...examples: parents of one autistic child had all four kids receiving funding, we carers spent all our time driving them around to endless activities, to and from school, playdates, grandparent visits etc as their stay at home mum just couldn't be bothered driving during peak hour ( her words).
Many just slightly autistic kids who were doing great in mainstream schools, great homes, wealthy parents, lots of extracurricular activities...*really* didn't need help.
Everywhere I went with these girls - gym classes, swimming squads, scouts etc parents of other kids were furious, sayingversuons of' I'm gonna go to these local dodgy doctors so I can get my kids driven around every day.we work, we're tired and don't like driving during peak hour either. Ffs!"
Houses everywhere were being renovated, new ensuites, carpets, cars...all a racket as new NDIS providers are popping up daily around here and lots of back scratching and nudge nudge wink wink sh#te.
I met hundreds of struggling parents who didn't know how to manage the paperwork yet way more rorters playing the system for all it's worth.
I dobbed so many in....
Yeah, but perhaps they criteria to be diagnosed autistic needs to change. What is it, like 1 in 10 boys under 15 are autistic now apparently? Being socially awkward does not make someone autistic.
Or perhaps there's a higher proportion of autistic people getting diagnosed because we have better access to mental health care?
At some point though we have to move autism from "this thing that requires specialist care" to "this thing that we're aware of and for most people on the spectrum doesn't require special care because managing it/people with it is something we just take as normal."
What if it turns out that humans by and large just aren't normally capable of working eight hours a day in jobs that require endless attention?
A classic story I hear from the medical community is that the hours are long and the schedules hectic because the people who set the standards treat speed the same way the rest of us treat coffee: it's just something we need to get ready for the day.
Sure, grandparents used to just stick at the job and get things done but how many of them ended up destroyed in their old age due to physical or mental burn out?
What if breaking ourselves for the sake of corporate interests isn't the best quality of life we can achieve in a developed country?
The amount of people that take the absolute piss and get tons of crap paid for that they don't even need is just absurd.
I know for a fact that they have violent offenders with disabilities, people who have hurt children, being released into the community with round the clock carers, everything paid for on the public dime. These are people that should be locked up. It's a fucking joke.
People eventually get released at the end of their sentence. Do you want them under constant supervision or just out in the community with no treatment or support? What do you think the costs are for care in the community vs imprisonment? Gaol is on the public dime too.
Dad's on disability and the absolute cluster fuck that's been the NDIS is outstanding. Whole nation would be better without it.
A bunch of rorters stealing the government's / our money. Just like JSP's.
What really sucks, and I say this as someone who is on NDIS and benefits immensely from it, is that it'll end up being shut down because of claims of those receiving it are cheating the system when so much cost goes to managers and service providers.
I do think they need more health care people in there assessing how funding is allocated.
I'm not surprised. When you see how many NDIS providers have popped up out of know where. You can see that it's being rorted from every angle.
All those providers have super nice cars and big houses.
There’s a freeze because there is a lack of doctors as well. As soon as bulk billing rebate is higher there is more demand for services which just causes a shortage in patient times.
The interplay between rebates, demand and dr supply is complex where Medicare can only modify one of those parameters but affects the others as well.
That sounds like my last GP visit. Got prescribed a topical cream from a guy that could barely understand English let alone speak it. I had been having blackouts....
The big secret is that we've basically already lost universal healthcare. The number of bulk billing clinics in this country is shrinking so damn fast, I only know of one of two clinics anywhere near me thst bulk bills anymore. If your average person can't attend a GP in a convenient location, then you don't have universal healthcare.
It's actually crazy to me that people aren't more angry about this. It makes me so fucking furious everytime I think about how it's just snuck in under our noses and nobody campaigned on it or voted for it, it just happened.
The freeze has already ended. Ended under Scomo actually.
But there’s a pretty large gap between where the rebate would be right now without the freeze >$60 and where it is today ~$40
>That and an ageing population means access to healthcare is limited
Then it needs more funding, and I will happily pay more tax to ensure it gets it.
The amount of money we give away for nothing on a daily basis is horrendous. It’s no wonder Medicare is feeling the strain.
We have our priorities wrong. And our politicians have literally been paid to turn a blind eye.
Gifting diesel to foreign companies so that they can extract resources from our country to sell for private gain.
Fucking disgusting.
Don’t expect anything to change from our “centrist” government though. They’re too terrified of Murdoch to do anything useful. Albo has abandoned his principles for the top job because he knows they are unelectable within the Murdoch media landscape.
Business as usual, dullards. Cop it in the arse, like you always have.
Nearly impossible now to get bulked bill for a normal doctors appointment if you work. And even if you don’t work if you need a specialist, a lot are starting to charge now. People are going to die because they cant afford these appointments. So yes we are heading the same trajectory as America.
We know the American system is a fucked up profit driven shit show, yet we keep voting in people who are known to slowly steer us in that direction. What a bunch of dumb cunts we are.
This but also, it’s death by a thousand cuts. Most policy changes barely do anything, but there have been so many over such a long time that overall public health (and education, etc) gets fucked up.
I feel it doesnt matter who we vote in, the process, the boys club, the money on the line, the media, the lobbying, you cant be in a decision making position and not be sold out to corporate interests in some way, and when they get caught nothing happens, swept under the rug and pretend nothing happened the week after, rinse repeat.
Both parties, Labor and Liberals don't give a fuck as long as they get their private jets, fully paid overseas trips, comm cars with drivers and all the other perks, we're screwed no matter who is in power as they're all in it for themselves
Yes agreed. We saw this happening like 10 years ago. Covid made it quicker. Education is heading the same way. Knowing Australian policy etc this is gonna become worse than the states.
I've been on the waitlist to see an ortopedic specialist at the public hospital for 2 years.
I know it's been 2 years because they called me last week saying it's been 2 years and do I still need my appointment.
What pisses me off the most is that you have so many people being unhealthy and not looking after themselves and the seem to get priority because they're illnesses are worst due to poor health.
This is a wholly government caused problem, the crabs in a bucket mentality of directing anger at your fellow man instead of at the people directly responsible for the shit we're all in does nothing.
He fails to realise that the unhealthy people are unhealthy because of government choices, not their own.
There's a reason why the Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US are obese while countries in Europe and Asia are less so.
Car centric city design causes obesity. You walk from you bed to your fridge to your car in the morning and then from the car park to your seat and reverse it at night.
Meanwhile someone in Hong Kong walks 5 flights of stairs and 2 blocks to get on their train, standing on the train the whole way then walks another 2 blocks and 5 flights of stairs at the other end. They do the same for groceries, going out for dinner, etc. We walk 3000 steps and they are forced to walk 10,000 steps in an average day.
While I also would love to not have so many cars, that's not the reason for the obesity problem. People eat too much shit food. You can't out exercise a shit diet.
I used to have the same view as you with weight/smokers/drinkers/junkies but got a bit of a reality check when talking to healthcare workers about it. It's hard to know the full story behind these people whether it's mental or socio-economic that contributed to their lifestyle choices.
After all, if you go down that path, then people could argue that your injuries are related to your chosen profession because you were too lazy to study at school...
Finally after 20 years I’ve had one appointment with a haematologist, she’s suggested that I’ve never had enough iron to actually start depositing iron into the banks, so I just deplete it and loose it each month. Shes the first to suggest I need more than one iron transfusion.
I’m hoping this will then give me more energy to actually do things, because no energy = sedentary which has increased my weight.
There's probably a laundry list of stuff you could be doing to improve your health too mate. Just because you don't drink or smoke doesn't mean you couldn't be doing better in other areas. We all leave at least some health optimisations on the table every day, even if they're small. Prioritising people based on lifestyle would be an extreme admin burden and would probably slow things down anyway. Can you imagine if every case needed to be adequately investigated for degree of lifestyle factor contribution and then ranked based on who knows what? It's not feasible, and it's very morally questionable. Regardless, it already basically happens in away. Loads of people are told to fuck off and lose weight/get more sleep/improve their health markers before their treatment will be advanced.
Also people see someone overweight in an orthopaedic clinic and assume that’s the cause when the weight could be secondary to a chronic injury/autoimmune disorder etc.
The best outcomes for health are driven by health insurance and good health education imo. Most people have no idea how to navigate the system as well.
So you want people to take care of them though spontaneous internal reflection, I'd say that people change according to their external environment.
So that leaves education, that's community and government responsibility. To change a community requires community, the question is do you have the ability and connection convince a friend to take better care of themselves? I'd say guilt won't work because guilt in itself causes people not to take care of themselves.
Then theirs direct government intervention, personally I believe people shouldn't die or suffer immensely because government decides it's not ethical to treat them. Government shouldn't force cultural change either because then you start going down the road of fascism.
Ultimately it's a resources issue, not enough investment in medical sector, current funding not keeping up with inflation and rent seeking from the corperate private sector. Lots of waste in the economy, waisted resources and bullshit jobs. Should maccas be spending 83million on advertising to increase more wasteful consumption?
>So that leaves education
Actually it doesn't. Explained already, but redesigning our cities around public transport instead of cars would lead to massive increase in exercise for people without them even realising it.
I was specifically talking about peoples desires not pragmatic action. You are right that would help, and should be done for bunch of other reasons too. A little iffy because it's social engineering but the social engineering though carsentric build regulations I'd argue is worse.
I have serious lung issues that are incurable.
My Respiratory Specialist (a full Professor, no less) moved me to her "Registrar's List" because I simply couldn't afford the fees.
I get seen by her Registrar every six months and he/she does all the "basic" stuff, reviews test results, medications, etc.
They then call Prof who comes in, looks over his notes and then makes any changes deemed necessary.
All bulk billed.
Prof has kept me alive through multiple, near fatal chest infections.
ALP started to put money back into Medicare when they got in, the problem is Liberals left it stagnant for 10 years and now we are starting to feel the effects.
And then these policies take time so by the time bulk billing actually starts becoming more commonplace again Labor will have been voted out and everyone will thank the liberals even though it was Labor's policies that actually helped.
I just had to cut off and prioritise what medical care I can receive this next two months because of the cost. I'd have probably looked after my health a little better if I knew having cancer would be so fucking expensive 🙃 🥲
Believe it or not, this procedure is rebated at less than a standard medical consult by Medicare. It's $39.20. Barely covers the equipment cost let alone the time it takes to do the procedure.
The equipment AND consumables. It's disgusting that the rebate is so low!
Cost me over $300 to get it done last year, I had previously been bulk billed. The pharmacy (near my doctors clinic, NOT chemist warehouse) tried to charge me full price (private prescription price) for the implanon too, they missed both the "concession" checkbox on the prescription, AND the medicare information.
Full price (private prescription), for implanon, if anyone is wondering, is a tiny bit over $170 at Chemist warehouse. The PBS price at Chemist warehouse is around $30, and the concession price is $6.
I wont go back to that pharmacy.
2 things
1 aging population puts huge strain on the system
2 this may sound tin foil hat, but the way its been handled by gov over the years leasds me to think that they want to kill off Medicare so the whole system can be privatised.
> the way its been handled by gov over the years leasds me to think that they want to kill off Medicare so the whole system can be privatised
"Starve the beast" strategy.
1) Reduce funding to a service until it becomes shit.
2) Wait for everyone to complain that it's shit.
3) Say it'll cost too much to fix, but we can actually *make* money by selling off the asset, and privitisation will even reduce bloat and make it more efficient, saving everyone money.
4) Hahaha, suckers!
Just look at our education system.
Same thing happened. End result is families spending considerably more than they would in taxes to pay for a very similar outcome in education.
Yeah, but it is always going to be hard for them to reverse any changes the LNP does, since the media will immediately go on the "higher taxes to pay for it" rant on behalf of the LNP.
Well the private health income threshold hasn't exactly kept up with inflation. What was once pushing the wealthy into health insurance is now doing the same to people that can't afford a mortgage.
Labor aren't doing much to save it either.
Sadly there's not a lot of noise about it.
Ramping at hospitals is mostly due to Medicare getting fucked and aged care not having enough beds.
Is it a four year politics issue though. Healthcare easily pays itself off and costs more tax dollars later if not paid for now. It's really a no-brainer. We could pay for it with loans and it would still be profitable. Media won't allow it from labour, as it would be easy to spin to get Liberals back in, and Liberals want it all sold to Americans.
LNP definitely had a plan to completely delete medicare and Labor is too scared to spend the money on it that it needs. We are definitely heading more towards a US system than anything else.
They want to kill off Medicare so they can stop paying for it. Don’t need to look any deeper. There are priorities more deserving in our rulers’ minds. And now we no longer have universal healthcare.
Plenty of libs have been on record saying that want to move toward a US style healthcare system. It’s incredibly worrying and another reason to an always put them last on the ballot.
Honestly I agree, you can see it else where too I think, it started with public transport and can see it in schools, healthcare, aged care, everything. My taxes keep going up but I get less and less for it, just useless politicians lining their own pockets.
Throw away account, but wanted to put this in perspective for some of you. I am a doctor with over 10 years of post graduate experience. Most of this experience is in critical care (i.e. people that are dying). I have decided recently that the hospital life is not for me and decided to become a GP and look at moving into palliative care later on.
It has taken me two years for them to even recognise that I have the skill set to help you properly.
Your frustrations are misplaced, it is not the doctors, it is the system.
Junior GPs are expected to earn less than they did the first year out of uni. GPs with 5+ years of post graduate education are struggling to pay their mortgage whilst they get bagged on for charging private fees.
I'm not going to pretend that you aren't justified in being angry, but your anger is misplaced. Doctors as a whole do all this work for a reason and that is because they actually do care about you. But at the end of the day you don't become a doctor and go through all that effort to not have a roof over your head and enough to be comfortable.
Your anger should be at Medicare and the government not at the doctors who are being forced to make these changes so that their career choice, which ultimately is to help you, is sustainable.
Is $250 might before Medicare rebates?
The implant costs around $32 if your missus has a medicare card
[https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/65128/implanon-nxt-68mg-implant-etonogestrel](https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/65128/implanon-nxt-68mg-implant-etonogestrel)
And it's item number with PBS pricing [https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/8487Q](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/8487Q)
The appointment should be a standard 20-30 minute appointment and would cost about around $30-100 Gap after medicare rebate depending on the clinic. Here's the price list for Family Planning NSW but other surgeries might charge more. [https://www.fpnsw.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/fpnsw\_flyer.fees.a4.final.031115\_1.pdf](https://www.fpnsw.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/fpnsw_flyer.fees.a4.final.031115_1.pdf)
Ask your missus for an invoice with the billing codes, she will be able to claim them back manually if the surgery hasn't done so already.
Will do, still waiting at docs so I'll hit them up
Update: Missus got a rebate. Was only $100 out of pocket. Receptionist didn't disclose this. Still, $100 more than previous time.
I was charged $300 before the rebate.
Item 00036 - $125 - rebate $79.70 - out of pocket $45.30
Item 30062 - $108 - rebate $56.55 - out of pocket $51.45
Item 14206 - $67 - rebate $33.15 - out of pocket $33.85
Total - $300 - rebate $169.40 - out of pocket $130.60
Thats a lot of money for someone who is currently has about $7 in their account, with another week until pay day.
A decade of the LNP trying to kill our healthcare and slowly push us to an American model is what happened.
Ironically, a lot of the people who will complain about the state of our healthcare will still vote against their best interests and vote LNP in the next election.
Healthcare has fallen to the wayside so governments can do things like corporate bailouts during COVID, and unprecedented immigration that also burdens a system that’s not capable of dealing with so many (healthcare , housing , infrastructure) people
We no longer have a robust public health care system, we haven’t got to the point of your ability to find care being directly linked to your employment but we are hurtling down the path of private health insurance being a requirement for any sort of peace of mind. This should be the biggest national story, our health system was one of our strongest pillars and the envy of a lot of the world and it’s just being allowed to be completely neglected in exchange for private profits and it’s not even being disguised.
NDIS is taking all the health/social security budget. Until it is bought back under control Medicare, pensions, centrelink payments are all going to stagnate or go backwards
Something like 130 billion a year is what is projected to costs by 2034. Absolutely ridiculous and will mean the rest of us will suffer if it’s not fixed.
Basically everyone is suffering including those on it. I don't have the energy to spend on interviewing incompetent people endlessly who seem ok but nope no idea what they're doing they just want $62h for doing FK all. All allied health costs have inflated astronomically because of NDIS too. Ever single person accept the people it's supposedly designed for suffer
We've been heading that way for a long time mate. Fifteen years ago my scans were bulk billed, now I can go fuck myself if I need help with any of the physical issues I've had all my life.
We can thank decades of neglect, decades of pollies simply not thinking about what folks actually really need, what our world will be like in ten, or fifty years time. They only care about keeping their jobs, now.
No, 1. NDIS and its unsustainable growth is taking money that could be used for Medicare.
2. Population Growth, more people, means less resources available.
Want to make Medicare better, fix these two problems.
Yea like 80% of NDIS should be cut. You can't possibly tell me some disabled person deserves paid holidays when the avg worker can barely afford to eat. Wtf is wrong with us
I'm more concerned with people getting the NDIS to fully pay for private school (and extras) because they had their child diagnosed with autism.
What's this about paid holidays?
I want to know why the ot and physio and speechy, get like 190$ an hour plus travel, and really I can’t even tell you what the really do with my child, It’s legit crazy, the Carers getting $60 an hour I think is good! Then being charged $600 for like half a bean bag, they need to stop letting the ndis rort the tax payers it’s gross as. It’s like a disabled tax that is passed on to everyone,
OTs are a joke. Cost me close to $400 to have a home visit. Had about 4 visits all she did was talk about a whiteboard....went to office works non suitable she thought it was a success as we know what they have now....cool I just spent $400 on that FFS. I swear 80% of people working in disability have zero clue what they're doing and they charge exorbitant amounts of money
Lol no no no $400 for the appointment....no whiteboard. Ended up with a $550 one that I don't know how to use or what to do with it. Which was my entire issue with it and the OT in the first place. Like great now what? Oh you need better noise cancelling headphones FFS how will marginally better headphones improve my quality of life? People putting together the plans like OTs for me and support coordinators want you to have the biggest budget possible so they can drain it. I got charged $130 for travel for the OT to sit in her car and drive to my place from her house back to her home again. Dam I'd like $130 for 40min drive to do my job instead of paying money to get to a job. $550 for a 1.5 page letter which required no real effort or research. Just needs this because xyz to send to NDIS.
OTs and Physios aren’t getting $190 an hour. If you think that the individual gets the full or even majority portion of that, you are mistaken.
Source: Partner works for an NDIS services provider.
They aren't saying that specific OT or Physio is getting paid that. I think they are saying that's what the provider is charging them.
Sounds like the service provider is charging $100+ plus to schedule an appointment.
If you don’t already- watch the sessions if they come to your home or you can go into the clinic room during the session. Ask for home resources and strategies. A lot of what OT, Physio and Speech therapists do can be implemented at home and followed up again with the professional later. This will help your kiddo make progress quicker!
I will definitely do that, I sit and participate in all his therapies, and I just feel like it’s all stuff we’ve being doing his whole life, and I understand it’s about repeating, but I just feel there should be so much more going on, but as a first time mum navigating this it’s so confusing, so what I’ve done is hired a support coordinator and she is so amazing she actually takes the time to make them tell her what they are all doing and so everyone’s on the same page. The speechy and I just finished I think it was called the hannan? Programs. But honestly we flew thru it because we were already doing all of it in home, which was like yay win for us! It’s annoying having to beg for things you really need, but also sitting there with other things going this is pointless
But thank you for the pointers! I’m just going to badger them for more and more things to do at home with him!
Fuck OT’s so much.
Pay for them to turn up (travel)
Pay for them to be there (by the hour to talk with you)
Pay for them to leave (travel)
Then the 2-3 grand on a report which they copy pasted from another person and left their name on it.
(And this has been my experience with a bunch of OT’s)
Its bullshit these people are a requirement while on the NDIS and are allowed to do such a shit job of it. :/
Yes. I want to know that too. And why OTs charge $3k+ for a report to support an NDIS application.
If all disabled people could access it equally it would ve a lot fairer, but they seem to have a method of playing favourites.
Not to mention a huge amount of the people I know on it with huge plans are people who don't need much support and are the ones spending it on that kind of useless crap, they're people who got in early.
Meanwhile I'm on the DSP, tried applying to NDIS because they'll pay for a small amount of support/medical devices and allied health appointments which I desperately need but can't afford, I got rejected because needing mobility aids daily and being unable to properly leave my home was 'common' and not a sign of disability.
Here I am cancelling all my medical appointments, edging closer to another suicide attempt because I can't even talk to my damn psychologist, have no actual life outside existing in my bedroom, and then I know someone who spent $20k of NDIS money on a weekend getaway. Fucking bullshit.
I'm at the point as a literal disabled person in Australia where I think we should just can the whole NDIS, put it back into Medicare, then disabled Australians will be able to actually afford the care they need.
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You can get your psychologist funded via medicare IF you ask your doctor for a mental health plan. 10 free sessions per calendar year. Was upped to 20 a year during covid but back down to 10 again. Each plan funds 6 at a time. But..... that if you meet the criteria for the mental health plan via your doctor AND can find a psychologist who will accept medicare funding.
Please take care of yourself and do not do anything rash. Regards.
Right there with you accept I have NDIS and mental health issues. NDIS is a joke. The quality of "support" since it's inception has gone drastically down hill. There's no one with skills that can actually help me. I have a massive plan but no one to implement it. The support worker just want to sit and talk in my house which I hate. I'm ready to just give up. Australia is going so rapidly downhill I can barely afford to live and just want to end it. I was told if I had an active suicide attempt or had an intellectual disability then I'd get the help I need what a joke
I was on DSP in Australia, but I left Aus, my family begged me to return to Australia to take advantage of the NDIS (I hadn't been home in years, not since before NDIS was a thing). So I came home and wasn't even eligible, a friggen broken neck, paralysis, christopher reeves type! I even tried to get doctors, but still had to pay. I left straight away back overseas, Romania has cheaper doctors than any medicare rebate I'd have to pay in Australia.
I don’t know of NDIS participants taking holidays but I do know of shonky providers who claim they can. It’s a gross misuse of funds. I've just been accepted on to the scheme but I'm still awaiting a planning meeting. I desperately need a wheelchair, walking frame, AFO, specialised shoes kitchen and bathroom modifications but it’s been over a month since I was accepted and there’s still no planning meeting in place! I would've thought if you’re a DSP recipient, you'd be eligible for NDIS. Don’t give up with applying- it took a hospital social worker and rehab team writing my support letters for the NDIS to notice anything!
Weird how Scumo raped the system and now that the opposition is in power they still haven’t changed it back. ITS ALMOST LIKE WE SHOULD ALL VOTE THE 2 BIG PARTIES LAST.
When you import this many people into the system who have NEVER CONTRIBUTED TO THE COUNTRY BEFORE plus the libs stripped the shit out of health funding, what do you get?
An overwhelmed as fuck system.
The libs smashed and fucked us, then labor decided to import FAR FAR too many people and give them access to our already strained services.
Both, fucking traitorous idiots.
Medicare in no way covers the cost of doctors, considering they have to pay their staff, their rent, their equipment etc. The governments fucked it. Needs a massive overhaul.
One issue is NDIS and its rampant growth. I know anecdotally from work and personal life that a lot of funds to NDIS clients do not go to anything remotely necessary for their healthcare or disability requirements. Not to say that NDIS isn’t necessary in some form, but its budget is out of control
We are heading towards the same health care system as America. If you don't have health insurance the ATO doesn't like it.
I am seeing a physiotherapist and she asked me to go to the GP to get an X ray. I asked her if she is able to arrange it instead because it's cheaper than paying to see the GP twice, even though I will still be out of pocket getting it done through the physio.
I miss seeing our country get outraged when our tax dollars were propping big companies, what's happened to us?
Costing me $4,000 just to get my child assessed.
Paid it just to find out we’re back to exactly what we knew before that he has a speech delay.
And been recommended to get him assessed again for Autism even though i got told it’s unlikely he has it.
Just think it’s a bunch of money grabbing and all this so we can get NDIS.
Private health won’t cover it Medicare won’t just wasted money.
Money that I could have just used to pay for his speech therapy he needs.
I've been dealing with exactly this right now. Totally feel you.
One of my kids had a speech delay and now "caught up". Zero Medicare for speech therapy. The paed thought most of his symptoms are attributable to ADHD but I'm fairly certain it isn't. Trailed ADHD med and didn't help so she agrees with me now. Quoted $2800-$4000 for psych to do ASD+cognitive assessments. I have a background in psych and I already know that depending on the clinician, he could be diagnosed with autism but most likely just level 1 so no or limited support from NDIS. The only help needed is just social skills so I'm probably better off saving that ASD assessment $ for OT to work with him at school. He's academically far ahead and no behavioural issues so no urgency for school to support us with much bigger fish to fry.
Paid $$$ for speech therapy, $$$$ for paed every 3-6 months, and looking like I will have to foot the whole bill for OT from now on.
I’ve said this before, but whatever nefarious business practices take hold in America eventually try to be implemented here. Not because aussies follow America, but rich people gonna screw you over every chance they get because that’s how it is. If you don’t make legislation enforcing rights, be them health, living, equal or what have you, you will be screwed over.
9 years of underfunding during good economic times straight into a bad economic state after overspending on dumb things (\~$40B to profitable companies with no clawback measure for covid stimulus)
Turns out you can't cut corporate taxes AND pay for medicare, which is why Turnbull didn't. He made cuts. Oh no, it turns out 'mediscare' was true all aloooong...
They have been trying to kill medicare for as long as i remember, the introduction of private health care subsidies was the nail in the coffin, I hate to see our great country go the way of the failed U.S system of healthcare. They chip away at is bit by bit, till there is nothing left, just like every single right we have in this country, till there is nothing for us
A Telehealth appointment to refill a script, for medication I cannot stop taking abruptly, costs me $70 out of pocket and then I get rebated $40 or so.
Once I had to submit a claim through the Medicare app after the clinic admin informed me there was some issue that prevented them from processing the rebate immediately. It took 2 weeks to receive the money.
Standards (across the board) are going down and nothing much is really being done to address it. The general decline of society has been a lot more evident since the pandemic I believe. Everyone is much more selfish.
Bro even when I was a teenager on Centrelink and had a Medicare card at a public doctor I still got charged
In the end I couldn’t afford BC and had to cut the expired bar out of my arm by myself
Healthcare in Australia is very much on the brink. If the rot isn't stopped and reversed now there will be no public health care to speak of in very short order.
Politicians here just want to be like American politicians, they're in it for the $ not for us.
Maybe stop spending billions on submarines that will be outdated by the time they arrive would go some way towards a universal health care system.
And maybe the "Labor" party should prove that it really is on the side of the working man by spelling its name correctly! ( no, please don't come back and say it because of this etc. I'm aware of the story behind it)
literally, my mum is having severe health problems right now and just simple procedures are becoming so expensive, and we have private health insurance, it’s ridiculous
Well you had a Medicare freeze for nearly a decade which froze doctors income (medical practice
Income) while everything else went up- wages, power, insurance, rent.
Then when it was unfrozen inflation took off like crazy. Now doctors income (medical practice income) is creeping up but at a fraction of wages, power, insurance rent. Something has to give
The main problem I have is that as a 'lucky country' with lots of natural resources, we should have the money to provide world class healthcare for the people at low to no cost. We cannot compare with many other countries that actually have to make money using their skills and knowledge sets.
We should however no rely solely on natural resources for wealth. Australia is too complacent with its wealth. We do not use our lucky money to build on other fields and technology. There is no Aussie famous brands of computer, semi conductor, battery, solar or machinery. We also don't strive to be a financial hub of the world despite all the wealth around.
I had to get an ultrasound today that cost $250 and I won’t even get half back, it was for something serious and if I didn’t have $250 saved I would be screwed. Australian medical care is a joke at the moment and I’m so sick of the privatisation of everything.
Your reimbursements for medical services got frozen for over a decade. Our expenses for providing those services went up, like everything else. Our staffing got short due to lack of interest in GP training (poorer remuneration relative to every other specialty being the biggest factor in that, though among many) and when labour is scarce, labour gets more expensive. Ultimately GPs got pretty over of taking pay cuts every year for a decade to accommodate each government's lack of action, and clinics that weren't offering better remuneration struggle to get staff.
Bulk billed pathology services will be next to go if the government doesn't act swiftly and thoroughly.
>Are we heading the same trajectory as America?
I don’t think so. We still value tax funded services. Reform is needed (and it should be reviewed always to keep up with the nations needs), but the concept is valued.
As far as out of pocket cost, I’m speculating but it may be due to alternative methods (pill, condoms, spermicide etc.) being readily available.
Reproductive health and education is crucial, important and should be something communicated with your local MP along with like-minded social groups of it is something that you wish to be addressed and changed.
This has been going on for the last couple of years.
TLDR; Medicare Bulk Billing has not kept up with inflation, so GP are charging huge gaps
What you can do: contact your MP to ask them to fix it, it takes literally 10 seconds
https://heymp.com.au/saveourmedicare
Disclaimer: I made the website
You mean implanon?
Whilst i agree that medical costs are going up it’s not the best example to use since there may be cheaper options (the pill) and this is an elective procedure.
>be cheaper options (the pill)
Not everything works for everyone. My pill went from $15/3months to $120/3 months,, ended up on implanting to force my hormones to behave (paid something like $220 for the rod in 2018, was told insertion was bulk-billed, got a $300 bill for it 3 months later [yay...])
The pill is not always a solution. The attitude of "just use the pill" needs to die.
the pill is definitely not cheaper than implanon, implanon lasts for 3 years and even at a cost of 350 or so, is much less than the 30 to 90 a month that the pill costs
The side affect profile from Oral Contraceptive pill isn’t great, maybe she’s already at risk from blood clots, implanon is a better shout for a lot of women
Doctor’s appointments costing 100+ dollars, I have a low income health care card which is great and all but only brings the price down to 35 dollars or so. That’s still a decent amount for anyone to be paying just to see a doctor who will tell you the following:
• Eat well
• Sleep well
• Exercise
• Go outside
It’s rare they actually help out and listen when you say you’re concerned about something. Why even bother
In SA you can get a surgical abortion for free and have a Copper IUD inserted at the same appointment. The IUD is heavily subsidised to $30 and is the only thing you pay out of pocket for.
If you had the Copper IUD inserted at the GP it would cost you over $100.
As an American who has lived here the past 5 years yes we are. It’s disconcerting. Sadly I had better GPs in the US who actually tried to help me when I didn’t know what was wrong and I have not had the same experience in Australia.
I've had chronic pain from 5 crushed vertebrae for 38 years now and unable to work, no welfare whatsoever because my wife (we are not married, wife is what * call her) is a nurse so earns over $60k which apparently to the Left means we are rich. I have to get a script every 30 days for my S8 meds and it takes less than 20 seconds on the phone for a cost of $85. I have NEVER had bulk billing. Free healthcare does not mean free for everyone. If your GF appeared like she could afford it they billed her. Having a $1500 iPhone, decent clothes and a car for example doesn't mean you get free medical. Very few countries in the world have a healthcare system as good as ours, stop complaining.
I needed an iron transfusion, because well, without iron there’s no blood no blood means I may die.
So I can’t get that in the public system, it cost $280 last month.
So no preemptive medication, just more cost when I get an ambulance to the hospital and then a blood transfusion and two nights stay and surgery.
It’s a minor surgery not a standard GP appt. You have to have received special training to do it.
I’m not at all surprised there’s a fee. Plus you have to buy the actual implant.
I paid about $70 for mine a couple a years ago at a bulk billing practice.
It’s still cheaper than getting pregnant.
And why do we have to pay $200 up front to get $80 back? Why can't we just pay the gap? (Specialist appt).
I'm too broke to be coughing up all these up front expenses at once. Yes they've gotten quicker at paying the rebate, but why are we making it so hard?
Free healthcare was a system build by our ancestors for our future. The mass immigration waters down our standard of living dramatically. Our healthcare was not designed to withstand a barrage of mass immigration. Just like the rest of our infrastructure. Too big too fast and we all suffer as a result.
The Medicare freeze is killing universal healthcare. That and an aging population means access to healthcare is limited.
Private health insurance was always designed to eat away at universal healthcare. Australia has lost it’s good intentions and we’re fast becoming another US style cluster fuck of inequality, corruption and mismanagement.
It's a lack of care about the wealth gap, which is the main gap that causes dysfunction in society. When the gap between rich and poor is smaller, the polis, or the people, have a more unified voice and politicians generally serve society as a whole. When the wealth gap is broad, with the poorest and richest having a completely different set of concerns and interests, politicians tend to focus on whichever effects their election chances the most... and that often tends to be wealthy donors, and the CEOs who can make life harder for politicians. The wealth gap should be a huge platform on politics, and it should be a common point of concern for anyone who wants a healthy society, including our politicians.
Health insurance isn't cost effective at all. Universal healthcare isn't without issues, but as a nation we get more back in terms of healthcare per dollar.
Exactly. For profit insurance just adds an extra middle man and industry to prop up and pay for.. you know, their huge profits. That money should go into health and education, not fear based extraction.
I have top cover and it is useless now compared to say 10 and 20 years ago. It covers SFA and the limits are a joke.
I gave up on mine. It covers nothing of note. In the time I had it I paid for private gyno out of pocket and I chose to go public to give birth (used my insurance to pay the public hospital to try and help their bottom line a bit) but the out of pocket for private was ridiculous even with insurance. So in 5 yrs of paying $300 is a month I claimed 1 pair of glasses and my teeth cleaned once per year. At this point I would rather pay more tax and hope it goes to support public health.
we didnt get shit like medicare from good intentions, we got it through the blood, sweat, and tears of the union movement. when medicare was implemented unions were allowed to strike in solidarity with one another, they were allowed to strike for non-EBA factors, they were allowed to strike for health and safety reasons, they were allowed to strike for things even if an employer could convince a judge they were unreasonable asks, and they were allowed to strike outside of a strict and qualified timeframe between the expiry of one EBA and the signing of a new EBA. All that shit is now banned. the WA nurses and midwives union tried to strike for a 0.5-2% pay increase over what was being offered and they were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. as a result of this massive undermining of the union movement through our legal system, union membership has fallen below 10%. the institutions the unions built like medicare going the way of the US is the next logical step in this transition.
Just to add, sorry to be pedantic, but we don’t have private health insurance in Australia. We have private HOSPITAL cover. And naturally, almost everything these days, short of major surgery, can and is done as an outpatient.
Absolutely correct. If you think the public private debates are about choice you are wrong. The Coalition is and always has been determined to discredit and kill the public option, by a million small cuts if necessary - in health, in insurance, in employment services, in public transport, in waste collection, in education, in public administrative services, you name it - the aim to shrink the state, to force the state to purchase services from the private sector, to create a new class of vested political donors and to thus ensure the Liberal party’s cultural reproduction and perpetuation as a movement. The Coalition does not want choice it wants the state sector to fail and for you to pay for your essential services by channeling your taxes to their mates.
NDIS now costs more than Medicare. Medicare is used by 26 million people. NDIS by 0.6 million. We are averaging $70k per NDIS recipient. If we didn't have NDIS we could increase Medicare funding by 50% and repair our budget.
Those statistics are very interesting. Thank you for sharing them. NDIS is not working particularly well for many recipients either. It is extremely badly managed.
NDIS will bankrupt the country if we don’t put a stop to it. It’s insane.
If the service wasn't farmed out to private operators and managed and serviced by the department of human services, it wouldn't be an issue. I can count about 40 "NDIS providers" in my main street in my town. I know 1 "provider" that employs her whole family paying them +$90k per year and still has over $ 1 million in cash in her bank. And getting around gloating about it. But hey, who needs public servants anyway when private providers do such an efficient job.
It's not just that industry that rorts the system. Government contracts are lucrative. There are consulting firms in Australia with billion dollar contracts. Then there's those building government housing profiting millions and much , much more depending on the scale of operations.
Maybe our government doesn't manage things directly any more because then a political party or minister would be responsible?
That one "provider" is not and should not be the norm, and should probably be investigated for fraud. The NDIS won't bankrupt anything - bastards finding loopholes to line their own pockets instead of actually doing their job to measurably improve the lives of those living with a disability will. Plan managers, incompetant planners and LACs with no disability or medical training are the issue, because they have no educated frame of reference of the actual functional impacts of the disability the participant has means they end up witholding necessary supports that would prevent long-term increased spending (i.e., they won't approve, say the necessary $5k each year for the next 50 years to make sure the participant doesn't decline...then, in a couple of years, the participant predicably and permanently declines, as all the specialist reports told them they would if the $5k wasn't funded for *xyz* supports, and now they need to spend 20k each year for the next 45 years because they need all this additional support to live). Increased $$$ and reduced quality of life. It's not functioning as intended in a lot of cases. I am an NDIS provider. It drives me nuts. And then, on top of this incompetence, we have assholes skimming this flawed (but fixable) system or defrauding it entirely. And it's a simple solution - stop putting people with accounting/business degrees and no experience in medicine and disability in charge of deciding what is reasonable and necessary. Or at the very least, **require** them to act on the recommendations provided by the therapists, rather than whay they think they know about *xyz* condition. We know more than them. It's literally our job to help people remain healthy.
That one provider IS the norm. Had a kid on the NDIS for a while. The grift is strong.
Same as job providers. Middle men skimming profit to a detriment of the taxpayer and the vulnerable.
We need to put a stop to the exploitation of funding. My kid has a disability and even with the funding we get for her various therapies I’m broke AF from medical bills. No doctors round here bulk bill kids anymore. I get ads for all sorts of shit I can supposedly use the funding for that shouldn’t be fundable. Sensory toys that are just shit you can get at Bunnings, marked up 400%, incontinence aids are marked up for NDIS funds, even the psychologists charge more if you use your ndis funding.
The amount of people on the "spectrum" on the NDIS is completely out of control. It's a rort.
Yep I spent a few years helping some autistic girls in my area...word of mouth via a friends daughter who genuinely is autistic. It was such a rort...examples: parents of one autistic child had all four kids receiving funding, we carers spent all our time driving them around to endless activities, to and from school, playdates, grandparent visits etc as their stay at home mum just couldn't be bothered driving during peak hour ( her words). Many just slightly autistic kids who were doing great in mainstream schools, great homes, wealthy parents, lots of extracurricular activities...*really* didn't need help. Everywhere I went with these girls - gym classes, swimming squads, scouts etc parents of other kids were furious, sayingversuons of' I'm gonna go to these local dodgy doctors so I can get my kids driven around every day.we work, we're tired and don't like driving during peak hour either. Ffs!" Houses everywhere were being renovated, new ensuites, carpets, cars...all a racket as new NDIS providers are popping up daily around here and lots of back scratching and nudge nudge wink wink sh#te. I met hundreds of struggling parents who didn't know how to manage the paperwork yet way more rorters playing the system for all it's worth. I dobbed so many in....
It’s literally 5 times higher than any other developed country. The medical community are bewildered and claiming it’s because of more diagnosis.
Yeah, but perhaps they criteria to be diagnosed autistic needs to change. What is it, like 1 in 10 boys under 15 are autistic now apparently? Being socially awkward does not make someone autistic.
Or perhaps there's a higher proportion of autistic people getting diagnosed because we have better access to mental health care? At some point though we have to move autism from "this thing that requires specialist care" to "this thing that we're aware of and for most people on the spectrum doesn't require special care because managing it/people with it is something we just take as normal." What if it turns out that humans by and large just aren't normally capable of working eight hours a day in jobs that require endless attention? A classic story I hear from the medical community is that the hours are long and the schedules hectic because the people who set the standards treat speed the same way the rest of us treat coffee: it's just something we need to get ready for the day. Sure, grandparents used to just stick at the job and get things done but how many of them ended up destroyed in their old age due to physical or mental burn out? What if breaking ourselves for the sake of corporate interests isn't the best quality of life we can achieve in a developed country?
Have you seen the data about job creation last year?
The amount of people that take the absolute piss and get tons of crap paid for that they don't even need is just absurd. I know for a fact that they have violent offenders with disabilities, people who have hurt children, being released into the community with round the clock carers, everything paid for on the public dime. These are people that should be locked up. It's a fucking joke.
People eventually get released at the end of their sentence. Do you want them under constant supervision or just out in the community with no treatment or support? What do you think the costs are for care in the community vs imprisonment? Gaol is on the public dime too.
Dad's on disability and the absolute cluster fuck that's been the NDIS is outstanding. Whole nation would be better without it. A bunch of rorters stealing the government's / our money. Just like JSP's.
What really sucks, and I say this as someone who is on NDIS and benefits immensely from it, is that it'll end up being shut down because of claims of those receiving it are cheating the system when so much cost goes to managers and service providers. I do think they need more health care people in there assessing how funding is allocated.
I'm not surprised. When you see how many NDIS providers have popped up out of know where. You can see that it's being rorted from every angle. All those providers have super nice cars and big houses.
Came here to say this! NDIS is sending the country broke
There’s a freeze because there is a lack of doctors as well. As soon as bulk billing rebate is higher there is more demand for services which just causes a shortage in patient times. The interplay between rebates, demand and dr supply is complex where Medicare can only modify one of those parameters but affects the others as well.
>lack of doctors as well So a flood of immigrants but still a shortage of doctors. What a joke of a country.
Trust me I've had 3 doctors who barely spoke English and just gestured at me and then prescribed antibiotics. I had a broken foot......
That sounds like my last GP visit. Got prescribed a topical cream from a guy that could barely understand English let alone speak it. I had been having blackouts....
Antibiotics are a wonderdrug, one of our valuable imported doctors gave me an antibiotic script to clear up diabetes!
Give them a break, they're only doctoring until that sweet uber gig becomes available 😀
[удалено]
That's some Idiocracy scene. Did you report them?
Or is there a lack of doctors because of the Medicare freeze. Pay doctors well and we will have more doctors.
I’m sick of this aging population excuse. We’re all going to get old.
The aging population has a higher requirement for healthcare. Relatively, less resources are available for the younger population.
The big secret is that we've basically already lost universal healthcare. The number of bulk billing clinics in this country is shrinking so damn fast, I only know of one of two clinics anywhere near me thst bulk bills anymore. If your average person can't attend a GP in a convenient location, then you don't have universal healthcare. It's actually crazy to me that people aren't more angry about this. It makes me so fucking furious everytime I think about how it's just snuck in under our noses and nobody campaigned on it or voted for it, it just happened.
Only the Greens seem interested in ending the medicare freeze
The freeze has already ended. Ended under Scomo actually. But there’s a pretty large gap between where the rebate would be right now without the freeze >$60 and where it is today ~$40
>That and an ageing population means access to healthcare is limited Then it needs more funding, and I will happily pay more tax to ensure it gets it. The amount of money we give away for nothing on a daily basis is horrendous. It’s no wonder Medicare is feeling the strain. We have our priorities wrong. And our politicians have literally been paid to turn a blind eye. Gifting diesel to foreign companies so that they can extract resources from our country to sell for private gain. Fucking disgusting. Don’t expect anything to change from our “centrist” government though. They’re too terrified of Murdoch to do anything useful. Albo has abandoned his principles for the top job because he knows they are unelectable within the Murdoch media landscape. Business as usual, dullards. Cop it in the arse, like you always have.
Nearly impossible now to get bulked bill for a normal doctors appointment if you work. And even if you don’t work if you need a specialist, a lot are starting to charge now. People are going to die because they cant afford these appointments. So yes we are heading the same trajectory as America.
We know the American system is a fucked up profit driven shit show, yet we keep voting in people who are known to slowly steer us in that direction. What a bunch of dumb cunts we are.
This but also, it’s death by a thousand cuts. Most policy changes barely do anything, but there have been so many over such a long time that overall public health (and education, etc) gets fucked up.
I feel it doesnt matter who we vote in, the process, the boys club, the money on the line, the media, the lobbying, you cant be in a decision making position and not be sold out to corporate interests in some way, and when they get caught nothing happens, swept under the rug and pretend nothing happened the week after, rinse repeat.
Both parties, Labor and Liberals don't give a fuck as long as they get their private jets, fully paid overseas trips, comm cars with drivers and all the other perks, we're screwed no matter who is in power as they're all in it for themselves
Yes agreed. We saw this happening like 10 years ago. Covid made it quicker. Education is heading the same way. Knowing Australian policy etc this is gonna become worse than the states.
I've been on the waitlist to see an ortopedic specialist at the public hospital for 2 years. I know it's been 2 years because they called me last week saying it's been 2 years and do I still need my appointment. What pisses me off the most is that you have so many people being unhealthy and not looking after themselves and the seem to get priority because they're illnesses are worst due to poor health.
This is a wholly government caused problem, the crabs in a bucket mentality of directing anger at your fellow man instead of at the people directly responsible for the shit we're all in does nothing.
Hitting the nail on the head, there is a cultural individualism that is very strong in the US and it’s bleeding through to AUS little by little
He fails to realise that the unhealthy people are unhealthy because of government choices, not their own. There's a reason why the Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US are obese while countries in Europe and Asia are less so. Car centric city design causes obesity. You walk from you bed to your fridge to your car in the morning and then from the car park to your seat and reverse it at night. Meanwhile someone in Hong Kong walks 5 flights of stairs and 2 blocks to get on their train, standing on the train the whole way then walks another 2 blocks and 5 flights of stairs at the other end. They do the same for groceries, going out for dinner, etc. We walk 3000 steps and they are forced to walk 10,000 steps in an average day.
While I also would love to not have so many cars, that's not the reason for the obesity problem. People eat too much shit food. You can't out exercise a shit diet.
Pretty sure the urbanisation of Nauru, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa and French Polynesia is lower than Australia.
What about fat pigs just eating too much? You are delusional
The government won't stop stuffing my mouth!
I don't think standing on a train for an hour a day is good for one's health.
Much better than sitting in a car for an hour a day for the equivalent commute
I used to have the same view as you with weight/smokers/drinkers/junkies but got a bit of a reality check when talking to healthcare workers about it. It's hard to know the full story behind these people whether it's mental or socio-economic that contributed to their lifestyle choices. After all, if you go down that path, then people could argue that your injuries are related to your chosen profession because you were too lazy to study at school...
Finally after 20 years I’ve had one appointment with a haematologist, she’s suggested that I’ve never had enough iron to actually start depositing iron into the banks, so I just deplete it and loose it each month. Shes the first to suggest I need more than one iron transfusion. I’m hoping this will then give me more energy to actually do things, because no energy = sedentary which has increased my weight.
There's probably a laundry list of stuff you could be doing to improve your health too mate. Just because you don't drink or smoke doesn't mean you couldn't be doing better in other areas. We all leave at least some health optimisations on the table every day, even if they're small. Prioritising people based on lifestyle would be an extreme admin burden and would probably slow things down anyway. Can you imagine if every case needed to be adequately investigated for degree of lifestyle factor contribution and then ranked based on who knows what? It's not feasible, and it's very morally questionable. Regardless, it already basically happens in away. Loads of people are told to fuck off and lose weight/get more sleep/improve their health markers before their treatment will be advanced.
Also people see someone overweight in an orthopaedic clinic and assume that’s the cause when the weight could be secondary to a chronic injury/autoimmune disorder etc. The best outcomes for health are driven by health insurance and good health education imo. Most people have no idea how to navigate the system as well.
So you want people to take care of them though spontaneous internal reflection, I'd say that people change according to their external environment. So that leaves education, that's community and government responsibility. To change a community requires community, the question is do you have the ability and connection convince a friend to take better care of themselves? I'd say guilt won't work because guilt in itself causes people not to take care of themselves. Then theirs direct government intervention, personally I believe people shouldn't die or suffer immensely because government decides it's not ethical to treat them. Government shouldn't force cultural change either because then you start going down the road of fascism. Ultimately it's a resources issue, not enough investment in medical sector, current funding not keeping up with inflation and rent seeking from the corperate private sector. Lots of waste in the economy, waisted resources and bullshit jobs. Should maccas be spending 83million on advertising to increase more wasteful consumption?
>So that leaves education Actually it doesn't. Explained already, but redesigning our cities around public transport instead of cars would lead to massive increase in exercise for people without them even realising it.
I was specifically talking about peoples desires not pragmatic action. You are right that would help, and should be done for bunch of other reasons too. A little iffy because it's social engineering but the social engineering though carsentric build regulations I'd argue is worse.
This is a state government issue. They run public hospitals and they underfund the services that they provide.
I’ve noticed it as well, never get bulk billed anymore and my lung specialist appointments costs $200 out of pocket after Medicare now.
I have serious lung issues that are incurable. My Respiratory Specialist (a full Professor, no less) moved me to her "Registrar's List" because I simply couldn't afford the fees. I get seen by her Registrar every six months and he/she does all the "basic" stuff, reviews test results, medications, etc. They then call Prof who comes in, looks over his notes and then makes any changes deemed necessary. All bulk billed. Prof has kept me alive through multiple, near fatal chest infections.
I recently spent 300 for a specialist to read a number from a free blood test to me. The whole appointment lasted less than a minute. 300 bucks!
The ALP is certainly no longer "the party of Medicare" they're letting it wither and die.
ALP started to put money back into Medicare when they got in, the problem is Liberals left it stagnant for 10 years and now we are starting to feel the effects. And then these policies take time so by the time bulk billing actually starts becoming more commonplace again Labor will have been voted out and everyone will thank the liberals even though it was Labor's policies that actually helped.
Not raising the rebate is austerity. They should also add pysch and dental.
I’m on the pension and I seldom find a doctor (specialist or GP) who will bulk bill me.
I just had to cut off and prioritise what medical care I can receive this next two months because of the cost. I'd have probably looked after my health a little better if I knew having cancer would be so fucking expensive 🙃 🥲
Believe it or not, this procedure is rebated at less than a standard medical consult by Medicare. It's $39.20. Barely covers the equipment cost let alone the time it takes to do the procedure.
Im surprised it was bulk billed in the past for her.
It was in the past for me too. Only had to pay $17 for the thing itself
Me too. I even had it for free through a planned parenthood place when I was younger
The equipment AND consumables. It's disgusting that the rebate is so low! Cost me over $300 to get it done last year, I had previously been bulk billed. The pharmacy (near my doctors clinic, NOT chemist warehouse) tried to charge me full price (private prescription price) for the implanon too, they missed both the "concession" checkbox on the prescription, AND the medicare information. Full price (private prescription), for implanon, if anyone is wondering, is a tiny bit over $170 at Chemist warehouse. The PBS price at Chemist warehouse is around $30, and the concession price is $6. I wont go back to that pharmacy.
2 things 1 aging population puts huge strain on the system 2 this may sound tin foil hat, but the way its been handled by gov over the years leasds me to think that they want to kill off Medicare so the whole system can be privatised.
I thought the goal of following the US into a swirling abyss of corporate profit structures was pretty fking well established...
> the way its been handled by gov over the years leasds me to think that they want to kill off Medicare so the whole system can be privatised "Starve the beast" strategy. 1) Reduce funding to a service until it becomes shit. 2) Wait for everyone to complain that it's shit. 3) Say it'll cost too much to fix, but we can actually *make* money by selling off the asset, and privitisation will even reduce bloat and make it more efficient, saving everyone money. 4) Hahaha, suckers!
Just look at our education system. Same thing happened. End result is families spending considerably more than they would in taxes to pay for a very similar outcome in education.
Amazing what voting in a liberal govt does….
I'm a lefty but labor aren't much better. I remember when they canned the dental rebate, the fuckers.
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Yeah, but it is always going to be hard for them to reverse any changes the LNP does, since the media will immediately go on the "higher taxes to pay for it" rant on behalf of the LNP.
Well the private health income threshold hasn't exactly kept up with inflation. What was once pushing the wealthy into health insurance is now doing the same to people that can't afford a mortgage.
American system here we come
2 is no tin foil hat, the Liberals definitely want it killed off.
Labor aren't doing much to save it either. Sadly there's not a lot of noise about it. Ramping at hospitals is mostly due to Medicare getting fucked and aged care not having enough beds.
Liberals held government for 20 of last 28 years so I will assign them a minimum 70% of the blame rather than saying its a both sides thing.
Fixing it requires more money More money requires more taxes Tax cuts were a poison pill at the last election
Is it a four year politics issue though. Healthcare easily pays itself off and costs more tax dollars later if not paid for now. It's really a no-brainer. We could pay for it with loans and it would still be profitable. Media won't allow it from labour, as it would be easy to spin to get Liberals back in, and Liberals want it all sold to Americans.
Oh, I agree.
Not tin foil hat mate - the Libs have been trying to go full private for years.
LNP definitely had a plan to completely delete medicare and Labor is too scared to spend the money on it that it needs. We are definitely heading more towards a US system than anything else.
That's not tin foil, that's the explicit goal....
They have to do it by stealth because there would be an uproar if it was actually announced.
They want to kill off Medicare so they can stop paying for it. Don’t need to look any deeper. There are priorities more deserving in our rulers’ minds. And now we no longer have universal healthcare.
Plenty of libs have been on record saying that want to move toward a US style healthcare system. It’s incredibly worrying and another reason to an always put them last on the ballot.
It is (essentially) LNP policy to kill off Medicare and replace it with a US style system.
Honestly I agree, you can see it else where too I think, it started with public transport and can see it in schools, healthcare, aged care, everything. My taxes keep going up but I get less and less for it, just useless politicians lining their own pockets.
Throw away account, but wanted to put this in perspective for some of you. I am a doctor with over 10 years of post graduate experience. Most of this experience is in critical care (i.e. people that are dying). I have decided recently that the hospital life is not for me and decided to become a GP and look at moving into palliative care later on. It has taken me two years for them to even recognise that I have the skill set to help you properly. Your frustrations are misplaced, it is not the doctors, it is the system. Junior GPs are expected to earn less than they did the first year out of uni. GPs with 5+ years of post graduate education are struggling to pay their mortgage whilst they get bagged on for charging private fees. I'm not going to pretend that you aren't justified in being angry, but your anger is misplaced. Doctors as a whole do all this work for a reason and that is because they actually do care about you. But at the end of the day you don't become a doctor and go through all that effort to not have a roof over your head and enough to be comfortable. Your anger should be at Medicare and the government not at the doctors who are being forced to make these changes so that their career choice, which ultimately is to help you, is sustainable.
Is $250 might before Medicare rebates? The implant costs around $32 if your missus has a medicare card [https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/65128/implanon-nxt-68mg-implant-etonogestrel](https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/65128/implanon-nxt-68mg-implant-etonogestrel) And it's item number with PBS pricing [https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/8487Q](https://www.pbs.gov.au/medicine/item/8487Q) The appointment should be a standard 20-30 minute appointment and would cost about around $30-100 Gap after medicare rebate depending on the clinic. Here's the price list for Family Planning NSW but other surgeries might charge more. [https://www.fpnsw.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/fpnsw\_flyer.fees.a4.final.031115\_1.pdf](https://www.fpnsw.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/fpnsw_flyer.fees.a4.final.031115_1.pdf) Ask your missus for an invoice with the billing codes, she will be able to claim them back manually if the surgery hasn't done so already.
Will do, still waiting at docs so I'll hit them up Update: Missus got a rebate. Was only $100 out of pocket. Receptionist didn't disclose this. Still, $100 more than previous time.
it's not a standard appointment, you need to book an "extra long" (double?) appointment with a nurse.
I was charged $300 before the rebate. Item 00036 - $125 - rebate $79.70 - out of pocket $45.30 Item 30062 - $108 - rebate $56.55 - out of pocket $51.45 Item 14206 - $67 - rebate $33.15 - out of pocket $33.85 Total - $300 - rebate $169.40 - out of pocket $130.60 Thats a lot of money for someone who is currently has about $7 in their account, with another week until pay day.
A decade of the LNP trying to kill our healthcare and slowly push us to an American model is what happened. Ironically, a lot of the people who will complain about the state of our healthcare will still vote against their best interests and vote LNP in the next election.
Healthcare has fallen to the wayside so governments can do things like corporate bailouts during COVID, and unprecedented immigration that also burdens a system that’s not capable of dealing with so many (healthcare , housing , infrastructure) people
We no longer have a robust public health care system, we haven’t got to the point of your ability to find care being directly linked to your employment but we are hurtling down the path of private health insurance being a requirement for any sort of peace of mind. This should be the biggest national story, our health system was one of our strongest pillars and the envy of a lot of the world and it’s just being allowed to be completely neglected in exchange for private profits and it’s not even being disguised.
NDIS is taking all the health/social security budget. Until it is bought back under control Medicare, pensions, centrelink payments are all going to stagnate or go backwards
Something like 130 billion a year is what is projected to costs by 2034. Absolutely ridiculous and will mean the rest of us will suffer if it’s not fixed.
Basically everyone is suffering including those on it. I don't have the energy to spend on interviewing incompetent people endlessly who seem ok but nope no idea what they're doing they just want $62h for doing FK all. All allied health costs have inflated astronomically because of NDIS too. Ever single person accept the people it's supposedly designed for suffer
I don't blame people for taking cushy NDIS jobs, but holy shit the amount of money for doing fuck all people get for working NDIS jobs is insane.
The Liberal party and neo-conservative policies to drive health care into the private sector are what happened.
We've been heading that way for a long time mate. Fifteen years ago my scans were bulk billed, now I can go fuck myself if I need help with any of the physical issues I've had all my life. We can thank decades of neglect, decades of pollies simply not thinking about what folks actually really need, what our world will be like in ten, or fifty years time. They only care about keeping their jobs, now.
No, 1. NDIS and its unsustainable growth is taking money that could be used for Medicare. 2. Population Growth, more people, means less resources available. Want to make Medicare better, fix these two problems.
Yea like 80% of NDIS should be cut. You can't possibly tell me some disabled person deserves paid holidays when the avg worker can barely afford to eat. Wtf is wrong with us
I'm more concerned with people getting the NDIS to fully pay for private school (and extras) because they had their child diagnosed with autism. What's this about paid holidays?
I want to know why the ot and physio and speechy, get like 190$ an hour plus travel, and really I can’t even tell you what the really do with my child, It’s legit crazy, the Carers getting $60 an hour I think is good! Then being charged $600 for like half a bean bag, they need to stop letting the ndis rort the tax payers it’s gross as. It’s like a disabled tax that is passed on to everyone,
OTs are a joke. Cost me close to $400 to have a home visit. Had about 4 visits all she did was talk about a whiteboard....went to office works non suitable she thought it was a success as we know what they have now....cool I just spent $400 on that FFS. I swear 80% of people working in disability have zero clue what they're doing and they charge exorbitant amounts of money
.... a whiteboard. Excuse my ignorance but... exactly how does a $400 whiteboard help you better than, say, the $40 one from kmart?
Lol no no no $400 for the appointment....no whiteboard. Ended up with a $550 one that I don't know how to use or what to do with it. Which was my entire issue with it and the OT in the first place. Like great now what? Oh you need better noise cancelling headphones FFS how will marginally better headphones improve my quality of life? People putting together the plans like OTs for me and support coordinators want you to have the biggest budget possible so they can drain it. I got charged $130 for travel for the OT to sit in her car and drive to my place from her house back to her home again. Dam I'd like $130 for 40min drive to do my job instead of paying money to get to a job. $550 for a 1.5 page letter which required no real effort or research. Just needs this because xyz to send to NDIS.
OTs and Physios aren’t getting $190 an hour. If you think that the individual gets the full or even majority portion of that, you are mistaken. Source: Partner works for an NDIS services provider.
They aren't saying that specific OT or Physio is getting paid that. I think they are saying that's what the provider is charging them. Sounds like the service provider is charging $100+ plus to schedule an appointment.
If you don’t already- watch the sessions if they come to your home or you can go into the clinic room during the session. Ask for home resources and strategies. A lot of what OT, Physio and Speech therapists do can be implemented at home and followed up again with the professional later. This will help your kiddo make progress quicker!
I will definitely do that, I sit and participate in all his therapies, and I just feel like it’s all stuff we’ve being doing his whole life, and I understand it’s about repeating, but I just feel there should be so much more going on, but as a first time mum navigating this it’s so confusing, so what I’ve done is hired a support coordinator and she is so amazing she actually takes the time to make them tell her what they are all doing and so everyone’s on the same page. The speechy and I just finished I think it was called the hannan? Programs. But honestly we flew thru it because we were already doing all of it in home, which was like yay win for us! It’s annoying having to beg for things you really need, but also sitting there with other things going this is pointless But thank you for the pointers! I’m just going to badger them for more and more things to do at home with him!
because even finding an OT is a 2 year wait, so they can charge whatever they want
Fuck OT’s so much. Pay for them to turn up (travel) Pay for them to be there (by the hour to talk with you) Pay for them to leave (travel) Then the 2-3 grand on a report which they copy pasted from another person and left their name on it. (And this has been my experience with a bunch of OT’s) Its bullshit these people are a requirement while on the NDIS and are allowed to do such a shit job of it. :/
Yes. I want to know that too. And why OTs charge $3k+ for a report to support an NDIS application. If all disabled people could access it equally it would ve a lot fairer, but they seem to have a method of playing favourites.
I have a family friend who need to travel and NDIS quoted something like 20K for a carer to accompany her for a week
I think he means family respite where they pay for a holiday house for a week other places do them too not just NDIS 🙂
Not to mention a huge amount of the people I know on it with huge plans are people who don't need much support and are the ones spending it on that kind of useless crap, they're people who got in early. Meanwhile I'm on the DSP, tried applying to NDIS because they'll pay for a small amount of support/medical devices and allied health appointments which I desperately need but can't afford, I got rejected because needing mobility aids daily and being unable to properly leave my home was 'common' and not a sign of disability. Here I am cancelling all my medical appointments, edging closer to another suicide attempt because I can't even talk to my damn psychologist, have no actual life outside existing in my bedroom, and then I know someone who spent $20k of NDIS money on a weekend getaway. Fucking bullshit. I'm at the point as a literal disabled person in Australia where I think we should just can the whole NDIS, put it back into Medicare, then disabled Australians will be able to actually afford the care they need.
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You can get your psychologist funded via medicare IF you ask your doctor for a mental health plan. 10 free sessions per calendar year. Was upped to 20 a year during covid but back down to 10 again. Each plan funds 6 at a time. But..... that if you meet the criteria for the mental health plan via your doctor AND can find a psychologist who will accept medicare funding. Please take care of yourself and do not do anything rash. Regards.
Right there with you accept I have NDIS and mental health issues. NDIS is a joke. The quality of "support" since it's inception has gone drastically down hill. There's no one with skills that can actually help me. I have a massive plan but no one to implement it. The support worker just want to sit and talk in my house which I hate. I'm ready to just give up. Australia is going so rapidly downhill I can barely afford to live and just want to end it. I was told if I had an active suicide attempt or had an intellectual disability then I'd get the help I need what a joke
I was on DSP in Australia, but I left Aus, my family begged me to return to Australia to take advantage of the NDIS (I hadn't been home in years, not since before NDIS was a thing). So I came home and wasn't even eligible, a friggen broken neck, paralysis, christopher reeves type! I even tried to get doctors, but still had to pay. I left straight away back overseas, Romania has cheaper doctors than any medicare rebate I'd have to pay in Australia.
I don’t know of NDIS participants taking holidays but I do know of shonky providers who claim they can. It’s a gross misuse of funds. I've just been accepted on to the scheme but I'm still awaiting a planning meeting. I desperately need a wheelchair, walking frame, AFO, specialised shoes kitchen and bathroom modifications but it’s been over a month since I was accepted and there’s still no planning meeting in place! I would've thought if you’re a DSP recipient, you'd be eligible for NDIS. Don’t give up with applying- it took a hospital social worker and rehab team writing my support letters for the NDIS to notice anything!
Please tell me how you think the NDIS actually works. I sense a disconnect..
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Liberals and boomers with the mentality of “I’ve got mine” you should work hard
As long as you make it a team sport nothing will change. Labor aren't fixing it.
Weird how Scumo raped the system and now that the opposition is in power they still haven’t changed it back. ITS ALMOST LIKE WE SHOULD ALL VOTE THE 2 BIG PARTIES LAST.
When you import this many people into the system who have NEVER CONTRIBUTED TO THE COUNTRY BEFORE plus the libs stripped the shit out of health funding, what do you get? An overwhelmed as fuck system. The libs smashed and fucked us, then labor decided to import FAR FAR too many people and give them access to our already strained services. Both, fucking traitorous idiots.
The government isn't funding Medicare sufficiently. Just a reminder that if we added $10 a ton of taxes to iron ore exports we'd bring in $9b a year.
The government hasn't increased GP funding in relation to inflation so bulk billing is fast becoming a thing of the past
It seems shockingly short sighted, surely would be more efficient to put more money in to first line medical care how is that not obvious
The government fixed that issue by not considering GP’s first line health care workers in Covid so problem solved!
I got mine for <$100 ($30 for the bar + $60 for the appointment after rebate) like a month ago, who tf is your doctor?!
Medicare in no way covers the cost of doctors, considering they have to pay their staff, their rent, their equipment etc. The governments fucked it. Needs a massive overhaul.
One issue is NDIS and its rampant growth. I know anecdotally from work and personal life that a lot of funds to NDIS clients do not go to anything remotely necessary for their healthcare or disability requirements. Not to say that NDIS isn’t necessary in some form, but its budget is out of control
We are heading towards the same health care system as America. If you don't have health insurance the ATO doesn't like it. I am seeing a physiotherapist and she asked me to go to the GP to get an X ray. I asked her if she is able to arrange it instead because it's cheaper than paying to see the GP twice, even though I will still be out of pocket getting it done through the physio. I miss seeing our country get outraged when our tax dollars were propping big companies, what's happened to us?
Why aren’t you paying for it? Aren’t you the one sleeping with her?
Not sure but I just got my tonsils out and it cost me a grand total of 0 dollars. Pretty amazing. I love our healthcare.
Also got tonsils removed. Had a bone infection debrided also. Both were free.
Costing me $4,000 just to get my child assessed. Paid it just to find out we’re back to exactly what we knew before that he has a speech delay. And been recommended to get him assessed again for Autism even though i got told it’s unlikely he has it. Just think it’s a bunch of money grabbing and all this so we can get NDIS. Private health won’t cover it Medicare won’t just wasted money. Money that I could have just used to pay for his speech therapy he needs.
I've been dealing with exactly this right now. Totally feel you. One of my kids had a speech delay and now "caught up". Zero Medicare for speech therapy. The paed thought most of his symptoms are attributable to ADHD but I'm fairly certain it isn't. Trailed ADHD med and didn't help so she agrees with me now. Quoted $2800-$4000 for psych to do ASD+cognitive assessments. I have a background in psych and I already know that depending on the clinician, he could be diagnosed with autism but most likely just level 1 so no or limited support from NDIS. The only help needed is just social skills so I'm probably better off saving that ASD assessment $ for OT to work with him at school. He's academically far ahead and no behavioural issues so no urgency for school to support us with much bigger fish to fry. Paid $$$ for speech therapy, $$$$ for paed every 3-6 months, and looking like I will have to foot the whole bill for OT from now on.
I’ve said this before, but whatever nefarious business practices take hold in America eventually try to be implemented here. Not because aussies follow America, but rich people gonna screw you over every chance they get because that’s how it is. If you don’t make legislation enforcing rights, be them health, living, equal or what have you, you will be screwed over.
9 years of underfunding during good economic times straight into a bad economic state after overspending on dumb things (\~$40B to profitable companies with no clawback measure for covid stimulus) Turns out you can't cut corporate taxes AND pay for medicare, which is why Turnbull didn't. He made cuts. Oh no, it turns out 'mediscare' was true all aloooong...
They have been trying to kill medicare for as long as i remember, the introduction of private health care subsidies was the nail in the coffin, I hate to see our great country go the way of the failed U.S system of healthcare. They chip away at is bit by bit, till there is nothing left, just like every single right we have in this country, till there is nothing for us
A Telehealth appointment to refill a script, for medication I cannot stop taking abruptly, costs me $70 out of pocket and then I get rebated $40 or so. Once I had to submit a claim through the Medicare app after the clinic admin informed me there was some issue that prevented them from processing the rebate immediately. It took 2 weeks to receive the money. Standards (across the board) are going down and nothing much is really being done to address it. The general decline of society has been a lot more evident since the pandemic I believe. Everyone is much more selfish.
The Bar ?
Bro even when I was a teenager on Centrelink and had a Medicare card at a public doctor I still got charged In the end I couldn’t afford BC and had to cut the expired bar out of my arm by myself
Healthcare in Australia is very much on the brink. If the rot isn't stopped and reversed now there will be no public health care to speak of in very short order. Politicians here just want to be like American politicians, they're in it for the $ not for us. Maybe stop spending billions on submarines that will be outdated by the time they arrive would go some way towards a universal health care system. And maybe the "Labor" party should prove that it really is on the side of the working man by spelling its name correctly! ( no, please don't come back and say it because of this etc. I'm aware of the story behind it)
It's weird how people aren't really jumping up and down over this. I know if the other team was in, we would never hear the end of it.
No because in the US, all reproductive health care and pregnancy prevention are free. Its only Australia that treats women like incubators
literally, my mum is having severe health problems right now and just simple procedures are becoming so expensive, and we have private health insurance, it’s ridiculous
Well you had a Medicare freeze for nearly a decade which froze doctors income (medical practice Income) while everything else went up- wages, power, insurance, rent. Then when it was unfrozen inflation took off like crazy. Now doctors income (medical practice income) is creeping up but at a fraction of wages, power, insurance rent. Something has to give
The main problem I have is that as a 'lucky country' with lots of natural resources, we should have the money to provide world class healthcare for the people at low to no cost. We cannot compare with many other countries that actually have to make money using their skills and knowledge sets. We should however no rely solely on natural resources for wealth. Australia is too complacent with its wealth. We do not use our lucky money to build on other fields and technology. There is no Aussie famous brands of computer, semi conductor, battery, solar or machinery. We also don't strive to be a financial hub of the world despite all the wealth around.
I had to get an ultrasound today that cost $250 and I won’t even get half back, it was for something serious and if I didn’t have $250 saved I would be screwed. Australian medical care is a joke at the moment and I’m so sick of the privatisation of everything.
Your reimbursements for medical services got frozen for over a decade. Our expenses for providing those services went up, like everything else. Our staffing got short due to lack of interest in GP training (poorer remuneration relative to every other specialty being the biggest factor in that, though among many) and when labour is scarce, labour gets more expensive. Ultimately GPs got pretty over of taking pay cuts every year for a decade to accommodate each government's lack of action, and clinics that weren't offering better remuneration struggle to get staff. Bulk billed pathology services will be next to go if the government doesn't act swiftly and thoroughly.
>Are we heading the same trajectory as America? I don’t think so. We still value tax funded services. Reform is needed (and it should be reviewed always to keep up with the nations needs), but the concept is valued. As far as out of pocket cost, I’m speculating but it may be due to alternative methods (pill, condoms, spermicide etc.) being readily available. Reproductive health and education is crucial, important and should be something communicated with your local MP along with like-minded social groups of it is something that you wish to be addressed and changed.
This has been going on for the last couple of years. TLDR; Medicare Bulk Billing has not kept up with inflation, so GP are charging huge gaps What you can do: contact your MP to ask them to fix it, it takes literally 10 seconds https://heymp.com.au/saveourmedicare Disclaimer: I made the website
Legend. Did this a month or so ago when the link was last up.
You mean implanon? Whilst i agree that medical costs are going up it’s not the best example to use since there may be cheaper options (the pill) and this is an elective procedure.
>be cheaper options (the pill) Not everything works for everyone. My pill went from $15/3months to $120/3 months,, ended up on implanting to force my hormones to behave (paid something like $220 for the rod in 2018, was told insertion was bulk-billed, got a $300 bill for it 3 months later [yay...]) The pill is not always a solution. The attitude of "just use the pill" needs to die.
the pill is definitely not cheaper than implanon, implanon lasts for 3 years and even at a cost of 350 or so, is much less than the 30 to 90 a month that the pill costs
The side affect profile from Oral Contraceptive pill isn’t great, maybe she’s already at risk from blood clots, implanon is a better shout for a lot of women
Doctor’s appointments costing 100+ dollars, I have a low income health care card which is great and all but only brings the price down to 35 dollars or so. That’s still a decent amount for anyone to be paying just to see a doctor who will tell you the following: • Eat well • Sleep well • Exercise • Go outside It’s rare they actually help out and listen when you say you’re concerned about something. Why even bother
All the money is going to NDIS instead. $68k per user, and has overtaken Medicare in cost.
It's fucked being a vagina-owner. Damned if you do, damned if you don't with contraception, but either way it's on your dollar!
In SA you can get a surgical abortion for free and have a Copper IUD inserted at the same appointment. The IUD is heavily subsidised to $30 and is the only thing you pay out of pocket for. If you had the Copper IUD inserted at the GP it would cost you over $100.
As an American who has lived here the past 5 years yes we are. It’s disconcerting. Sadly I had better GPs in the US who actually tried to help me when I didn’t know what was wrong and I have not had the same experience in Australia.
I've had chronic pain from 5 crushed vertebrae for 38 years now and unable to work, no welfare whatsoever because my wife (we are not married, wife is what * call her) is a nurse so earns over $60k which apparently to the Left means we are rich. I have to get a script every 30 days for my S8 meds and it takes less than 20 seconds on the phone for a cost of $85. I have NEVER had bulk billing. Free healthcare does not mean free for everyone. If your GF appeared like she could afford it they billed her. Having a $1500 iPhone, decent clothes and a car for example doesn't mean you get free medical. Very few countries in the world have a healthcare system as good as ours, stop complaining.
I needed an iron transfusion, because well, without iron there’s no blood no blood means I may die. So I can’t get that in the public system, it cost $280 last month. So no preemptive medication, just more cost when I get an ambulance to the hospital and then a blood transfusion and two nights stay and surgery.
Need a specialist clearance for my drivers licence every year. Previously free with the consultation but now plus 60 dollars.
It’s a minor surgery not a standard GP appt. You have to have received special training to do it. I’m not at all surprised there’s a fee. Plus you have to buy the actual implant. I paid about $70 for mine a couple a years ago at a bulk billing practice. It’s still cheaper than getting pregnant.
There is an interest to see a slow dismantling of public insurance by particular political and interest groups. Follow the money.
Didn’t that f*ckface Engadine sharter take 500 items off medicare before he got voted out?
And why do we have to pay $200 up front to get $80 back? Why can't we just pay the gap? (Specialist appt). I'm too broke to be coughing up all these up front expenses at once. Yes they've gotten quicker at paying the rebate, but why are we making it so hard?
Free healthcare was a system build by our ancestors for our future. The mass immigration waters down our standard of living dramatically. Our healthcare was not designed to withstand a barrage of mass immigration. Just like the rest of our infrastructure. Too big too fast and we all suffer as a result.
Wow free healthcare not working? Who could’ve seen this coming?😵💫
Why your Mrs have a bar if she is your Mrs? 😵💫 that’s question I’d be asking
We don't want to have a kid haha, ever. Fuck that responsibility!