Healthcare... America and the rest

[Scot Dutchy]

My one time in Ozland I was very much under the impression health care was expensive but I was maybe misinformed.

Medicare was introduced by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1973 or thereabouts. Before that, you either insured yourself or paid out of your pocket, though elementary and emergency care was available at hospitals for free. Since Whitlam was turfed out of government in 1975, conservative governments have attempted to kill medicare by way of a thousand cuts and the Labor party has managed to make good only part of the damage whenever it was their turn to govern. So, yeah, the situation is slowly deteriorating, but I don't know how you got the impression that health care was expensive. Was it maybe that as a tourist you were not entitled to the Australian government's health cover, and had to insure yourself? That would have been expensive, and it is a lot more expensive now.

I was visiting with my wife her cousin in Queensland just north of Cairns. They were complaining about the cost of care. Both were ex-professionals (a television producer and a lecturer) retired so I would presume they had good pensions but unfortunately have turned into two obese alcoholics. I could not blame them living where they live which would have driven anyone to drink. The tropics is not always what people dream of. Retiring to the country would kill me and give me a city anytime.

I dont have to insure myself to travel as that is part of my own health package including repatriation by special plane if required.

[pErvinalia]

And, shit - Dutchy hates my ass, but I have no problem coming to his defense here, because this just illustrates the poison you are to most discussions....

Oh have a fucking cry you big baby. You've been dumping on Dutchy for the last year. Talk about no self awareness.

I'm not crying, asshat. I'm telling you why you post like total dickface, and why you're a douche. It has nothing to do with my exchanges with Dutchy, so stop deflecting. You called the guy "clueless" because he, a Dutch person, didn't know the ins-and-outs of the Australian healthcare system.

And I'm pointing out that you are being utterly hypocritical. You've relentlessly trolled Dutchy for at least a year now. You don't give a fuck about protecting Scott from abuse. You are just using this as an excuse to shoehorn in an attack on me.

[pErvinalia]

Medicare is becoming less of a cover and more like a subsidy.

That's what it sounds like to me. The money has to come from somewhere? Taxes seem the logical conclusion.

It's exactly the same as the public education system. It's paid out of tax revenue. The only difference is that there is a specific health care tax (the 2% of taxable income we talked about earlier). I don't know if it still exists (there was talk a while ago about getting rid of it), but since about the year 2000 or so there has been an additional 0.5% levy if you earn over 50 odd thousand dollars and you don't have private health insurance. The idea was to get richer people to take out there own private insurance to lessen the burden the public system. So what most middle class people (including myself at the time) did was to get the cheapest private cover so you could get the exemption from the additional levy. But over time as private policies went up in price and levels of cover decreased, people started ditching private cover. I ditched mine about 10 years ago or so. Wasn't worth it.

[Scot Dutchy]

Our old system was in the same mess that the British NHS finds itself today. I was in private care due to my income which was not high but to force people with any sort of half decent income to take out their own cover the level was quite low. The department of health was top heavy with all the administrative civil servants. The department was closed down and the insurance companies were brought in to run the show but under very strict control of the health inspectorate. All hospitals became foundation trusts.

[Tero]

I'm waiting for my 2017 insurance card, but my bill for the heart attack willnow run $7050. Not sure how the insurance co came up with the 50 part.

[Scot Dutchy]

That is horrendous.

[Tero]

Well, I might get away with 4000-5000 for a less severe heart attack.

Internet tells me that

The average cost to traditional health insurers for the first 90 days following a heart attack is $38,501. Medicare spends over $14,000 per patient on hospital bills in the year after a heart attack, plus additional amounts for physicians and outpatient care.

CBS tells me the same. Most heart attacks will cost exactly your deductible plus whatever % you pay over that.

According to theAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality[5] , the average length of hospitalization and related costs for heart attack patients is 5.3 days at $21,500 per stay. Costs for patients with insurance may include a deductible, plus 10%-20% or more of the total bill, which could easily reach the yearly out-of-pocket maximum. Treatment[6] will vary depending on the severity of the condition and amount of heart damage present.

http://health.costhelper.com/heart-atta ... -cost.html

[Tero]

Spending is up in all healthcare. Only GUBMENT run Medicare has controlled costs.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-he ... ar-AAl4c0S

[Tero]

This just in! Paul Ryan has discovered that sick people are using Medicare! Costs will be cut by cutting off these sick people from Medicare!

[Woodbutcher]

My father-in-law had a heart attack about ten years ago when he was wintering in Mesa, Arizona. His insurance company hired a private plane, two pilots and a nurse to accompany him back to Thunder Bay. He was brought to a hospital here, they did tests immediately and shipped him via medivac plane to Hamilton, Ontario, where he had a quadruple bypass operation within four days. The medical bill to my father-in-law: $0.00. I have the same insurance. So does my wife.

[pErvinalia]

That's un-Amerkin!

[Woodbutcher]

That's un-Amerkin!

Eh?

[pErvinalia]

[Hermit]

That's un-Amerkin!

It's Canadian. So, yeah, it's un-Amerikin as in "not US".

[Woodbutcher]

That's un-Amerkin!

It's Canadian. So, yeah, it's un-Amerikin as in "not US".